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August 27, 2006 |
My Birthday Present
It's the week of my 30th birthday. I'm turning 30. It didn't bother me too much until I realized that I can no longer check the 25-29 age category on applications. I am about to enter a whole new world.
Around the time that Joel was turning 30, I taught the girls to say "Daddy's 30!" and "Mommy's 29!". The way they yell 29 is priceless. I decided that it would be funny to always be 29 in their world, especially Aselya's because the way she says it is emphatic and final. The other day she says to me "Mommy? You birthday? You 30 like daddy." I could not believe it. Where did she learn this? So, I said "No, mommy's 29. Daddy's 30." She says, "No mommy, you 30 like daddy". I finally convinced her that I am 29. But today? She told me again that I was having a birthday and going to be "30 like daddy". I have one smart cookie on my hands. There isn't much you can get past her.
My brother already gave me my birthday present. See?
It is a newly fashioned fire pit! I'm excited to use it. Roasted marshmallows and S'mores here I come! Care to join me?
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August 26, 2006 |
Seek and You Shall Find
As you know (despite the fact that I still have not sent out change of address cards), we moved. This month, we have been checking out local churches and parks.
So far, we’ve been to one church. We decided that in order to make an informed decision as to whether we’d like to attend or not, we have to visit each church at least 3 times. What happens when the church has a congregation size of 50 and they start to “court” you? We’ve gone two weeks now to the first church on our list. We were welcomed with great excitement. Joel has been asked to play keyboard and guitar (already). The girls have made cereal necklaces for their eating pleasure. We’ve been invited to dinner. It’s overwhelming and nice. The problem? We’re not convinced we want to go there. Everyone is nice and the feel is definitely real. It isn’t a bunch of people going to church to say they go to church. The sermons take a good look at the Bible. The music is okay. It is very contemporary. I like a mix of the old with the new. We know that we can add a lot to the church as it continues to build. But we’re not sure that we want to do that. In some ways, we want to go to a place that is well established. We’re not crossing it off the list, but we are still going to see what else is here. I’ve been giving a lot of thought to this (and all of our church experiences up to date) and I’m hoping we’re led to the place we are supposed be attend.
We’ve been to
many parks. The one closest to us is my favorite so far (aside from the
awesome one in
We went to a park
that is a very close second. It has really fun slides, swings, and good
equipment. There is real and true sand. There isn’t, however, a
whole lot of shade. As an added bonus, you can see planes flying
because it is close to a small
airport. The pictures you see are from some of our park
adventures. Marissa often joins us in our post-dinner park outings.
"Frank, I am not an airplane"
"I love my brother."
"Hmm... "
"I'm not telling and you can't make me."
Joel especially enjoys these outings.
Waving.
Is it a bug? No, it's Aselya.
"We're outta here!"
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August 26, 2006 |
Fortunes
Gained and Fortunes Lost When I look at that title, it appears as though I am about to tell a casino story. I’m not. I have a question for you though. How many fortune cookies have you eaten in your
lifetime? Me? I’ve eaten
countless. I ask because the other
day, I went into the kitchen and saw a couple of delicious fortune cookie
treats. I pulled one out of its
wrapper and popped the whole thing in my mouth. I was chewing and something didn’t seem
right. Duh?! I. Ate. The. Fortune. You know the fortune in the fortune
cookie? How dumb can I be? Clearly it was not the first of these I had
ever eaten. I just wanted the
cookie. There was nobody around around with whom to share the fortune: “You will have
great success” (in bed). Actually, I’m
not sure what the fortune said as it was a chewed up and crumpled mess by the
time it was discovered. Have you done anything |
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August 24, 2006 |
All
I have to say for now. Why is it that you as soon as you clean and mop
the floor a child has to spill her milk all over
it? Why? Please tell me. |
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August 23, 2006 |
Happy 8 Months, CPOM*H!
Xaden? Are you listening? You need to stop getting bigger and bigger. It is breaking my heart. No more baby around here. You are pulling up and moving around the furniture! You have two teeth! You babble-- ga ga ga, daaaaa, daaaaaaaaaa, baaaaaa, baaaaaa, maaa, hei. You're learning to pat-a-cake.
And now? You're making friends!
"This is my friend Talan, he's about 6 weeks younger than me!"
You love showing off your skills! You sit in "big boy" chairs (when someone is nearby to catch you should you fall, unlike the stair incident).
You play in the grass.
And you get out of your bath seat.
Before long, you won't want to cuddle with me and you'll be wanting to "do it myself, mommy".
So, stop it. Would you? Thanks. I love you little man.
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August 23, 2006 |
Nameless, but Oh So Loved.
Look who moved into the barn!
The girls are in love with them!
Aselya's fear of animals has subsided for the love.
Adiana is in pure heaven and thus so are we.
Joel was in Vegas over the past weekend. I had some issues with the technology. All is better now. Our apologies for the lack of update. But, today's bonus? You get two posts!
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August 10, 2006 |
Happy Birthday
Frank! The girls helped to bake Frank a delicious birthday cake (of which he tried to refuse). They enjoyed the entire process very much. This, however, was their favorite part:
Adi just finished telling me that Aselya "was messy".
In addition to the cake, we celebrated by putting a big sombrero on him and making him dance on the table. So maybe there wasn't dancing, but there sure was a big sombrero.
Do you see this? His eyes are OPEN!
The people in the background are our close personal friends all there to celebrate Frank's birthday. Or they are there for the food.
Happy Birthday Frank! We love you!
We look forward to celebrating many more!
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August 9, 2006 |
Have I told you how active Xaden is? He. Is. Active. He can not sit still. He is a mover and a shaker in the worst way. Paper on the floor? He has it in his mouth before you can blink. Poop in his diaper? Better wrap your leg across his chest if you don’t want the mess all over the floor. I told you how he loves him the vacuum cleaner. He seeks it out. And not just the little one. He does not discriminate—he loves him the upright too. And don’t even get me started about his fascination with cords.
He also loves his sisters. And they love him too. Unfortunately, the girls don’t always understand the bounds of play. They want to pick him up (Aselya prefers to do so by his neck). They want to include him in their activity. We tend to have to keep a close watch on them.
Or else.
See this nice baby gate blocking the stairs?
The top hook came undone about a week ago and we have been naively living with solely the bottom hook. It seemed enough of a deterrent until Joel was motivated to fix the hook. Today, Aselya decided to unhook the bottom hook. Joel and I were in the kitchen (where the stairs are not visible) eating and cleaning, respectively (that’s a math term—I’m not talking about Aretha Franklin type R-E-S-P-E-C-T, but rather order). Next we heard a horrible shriek coming from the CPOM*H!
I ran. FAST. Xaden was on the third stair down. He looked up at me with fear in his eyes. I tried to get there, but there wasn’t a thing I could do. Down he went-- four more stairs to the landing.
And then my heart stopped.
More shrieking. Breathe. I ran down and swooped up my baby and hugged him with all the love I could muster. I felt so helpless. Xaden squirmed and wiggled and laughed as if nothing had happened. That little stinker. The feeling of complete inadequacy and fear and shock that I felt in that moment is something I can not describe to you.
The girls were just as scared. They just wanted him to be included. Their activity just happened to be centered at the stairs in that moment in time. The looks on their faces was enough to break my heart just a little more.
And then Joel
fixed the gate.
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August 7, 2006 |
Allow me to
introduce you to: The newest member of our (extended) family.
This is Izzy. We met her on Sunday. She is a sweet and delicious little yorkie poo. Taira received her as a birthday present.
Adi, Taira, and Izzy
Adi holding Izzy who took the opportunity to nap.
Adi? Lurved her more
than you can even imagine!
Aselya? “Izzzzzzzzzzzzy. No Izzzzzzy.” I find this incredibly funny because Izzy? Is a tiny
little furball.
Sweet. Calm. Gentle.
My daughter continues to have a fear of animals. She has a “look but don’t touch” attitude
about them. However, show her a bug and she is all over it. In our house we have an overabundance of boxelder bugs. I’m
starting to get used to seeing them.
This does not mean I like them, but I’m learning to live with
them. Apparently, Aselya is too. At lunch today, one fell from the window
onto the table (want to come over for a meal?). Adi freaked out. “Spider, no spider!” Aselya?
Picked it up and threw it on the floor without even thinking about it. Adi: You move spider? Aselya: Yep. Our trip to “Hawaii” was a
lot of fun! We saw friends we hadn’t
seen in awhile. Also? I promised you pictures from our cabin adventures this summer. I tried to make a cool slideshow, but I am having troubles. So? You get this.
When I am smarter, I will give you a slideshow. Or I could use flickr, picasa, or photobucket like all the other cool kids do. But I won't. We are working on a redesign—it’ll take some time! Keep the title suggestions coming—thanks to
those who have participated so far! |
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August 3, 2006 |
It’s August! I can’t believe
it. The summer has been filled with so
much activity that I am caught off guard by how quickly it is going by… On Tuesday, Mike and Amy came over for some fajitas! They brought margaritas! We played Scrabble. It was a lot of fun. I played by “grandma” rules so I had the
most points, but conceded the game to Mike. On Wednesday, Ann, Matt, and Alex came over for dinner. The girls loved playing with …er tormenting… Alex.
It was such a nice treat to have them over as we hadn’t seen them in a
LONG time. In fact, it was their first
time meeting Xaden. And do you think I
could remember to take a picture? Of
course not. We’re hoping to see them
more often. Tonight, Grandma and Grandpa came over for dinner. I experimented with cooking some Indian
food. I made daal
and makhani chicken. The daal was much
too salty (I am going to try again!) and the makhani
chicken was okay, but lacked some flavor.
G and G were our guinea pigs.
They were good sports. Joel
made some awesome naan. Though it seemed more pita-ish than naan-ish. He is going to bake it at a lower temp next
time. Are you hungry yet? We enjoy
cooking and it was really nice to see our friends! There is not much else to say today.
We’re going to |
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July 31, 2006 |
Elena: Do you want to talk on the phone? Adiana: No, I’m too busy. Elena: Can you say Grandma Gullickson? Aselya: Gamma Gu-ick-son Elena: Can you say Aselya Gullickson? Aselya: No. Aselya not Gu-ick-son. |
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July 30, 2006 |
To: Tina. This should make you almost wet your pants
(again). My cousin Tina and I went to Menards
yesterday. It was quite a trip. We were buying a birthday present for
Marissa. We wanted to get her a wagon
which happened to be located high up on the shelves. And I?
Am 5’2” on a good day. Tina is a bit taller, but she is a princess
and thus cannot reach objects on high shelves. We decided to buy this
for Marissa. We needed some assistance
because it was out of our reach. I
asked some employee and he helped us to get it down and put it in our
cart. He walked away. We looked up and there was a green one like
this
behind the one we’d gotten down. Of
course, we neeeeeeeeeeeded the green one. The green one was even more out of reach than the original red one we
had picked out. I asked another
employee for help. He went to fetch a
ladder. It seemed to be taking him
forever. And when I say forever, I
mean FOR. EVER. I devised a plan. I would just stand in the cart and that
would give me some height. I tried. I moved the box a bit forward, but it
seemed to want to bring another bigger and heavier object along with it. I stepped out and down—beaten and sad. Tina?
She knew she had a height advantage, but um… princess, remember? Another customer was watching our antics. He must have been about 6’4” and came over
to help. We told him we wanted the
green one. His response? “Of course, you want the green one.” Did I mention that the green one we wanted
was not only way out of reach but under yet another red one? Yes, we were being difficult and
picky. Hey! We were going to spend OUR money on it and
we wanted what we wanted. The customer reached up and moved it a bit more forward and the
employee whom we had been waiting for finally returned with a ladder. It took him all of 3.5 seconds to get it
down. Patience, people. I don’t always have it. You think I’m finished with my story?
Not quite. Tina was holding the
CPOM*H and I was pushing the cart with the TALL
package out to the van. We were
walking along and suddenly we heard and I felt a very, very large
BANG!!!!!! It was the cart running
into a cement barrier meant to keep large objects from entering the front of
the store. It was ridiculously
funny. Tina saw it and thought I had
seen it and was going to shift the cart over.
But I think she had forgotten about my height. I couldn’t see OVER the box. Sheesh. Tina was laughing so hard I thought she was
going to drop MY BABY! She
didn’t. But she made sure that I told
Joel about my antics upon our return to my house. I love my Princess. Even when
she laughs at me. Especially when she
laughs at me. |
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July 29, 2006 |
The Crown Prince of My* Heart
Here are a few pictures of a 7-month-old Xaden.
Please note the drool. Do you know what makes my 7-month-old drool? His first tooth. Yep! It's coming through and my boy is cranky about it. But still a prince.
Still drooling. He is destined to be a great piano player. He is constantly pulling himself up and hitting the keys.
"I love an audience."
I cannot keep him away from this vacuum cleaner. Is he trying to tell me something?
* My = Jody (these pics are
especially for her!) |
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July 26, 2006 |
I’m looking for a title for this blog. I am going to do a redesign (it may take a
while as I have to learn some things) and I am looking for suggestions for a
title. Joel likes “e-llama”. I don’t.
Do any of you have a suggestion (or two)? Aselya: Ow! I hurt my butt. Kiss it. Joel: I’m not kissing your butt.
Ask Adi to do it. Aselya: Adi, will you kiss my butt? Adi: Okay. Kisses butt. Aselya: Thanks, Adi. Elena: Where is
your chin? Adi: Right here. Points to chin. Elena: Where is your forehead? Adi: Right here. Points to forehead. **This goes on
for about 10 body parts. Elena: Where is your shin? Adi: Right here. Points to chin. Elena: This is your chin. This
is your shin. Points to appropriate places. Adi: No. That’s a leg. Also? Xaden turned 7 months on
the 22nd. His pictures have
been updated at www.xaden.net . He is too cute! There are many as I am unable to control myself
when a camera is in my hand. One more thing. Anybody
following the Linux discussion from yesterday: we are running the exact same Mepis version we’d been running before. He should NOT have touched it at all. I tried to tell him, but noooooooo. |
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July 25, 2006 |
Aselya is not allergic to bees. How do I know this? At the
cabin last weekend, she walked out onto the deck and was attacked by a swarm
of angry yellow jackets. She was just
minding her own business and sting! Sting!
Sting! Actually I wasn’t on the deck when this occurred so I can’t say for
sure that she was minding her own business.
I can tell you that one minute there were four kids playing on the
deck and the next minute they were being shooed inside with Aselya screaming
in agony. She has a sting on the side
of her hand, above her left eyebrow, and on the top of her head. She was actually pretty nice about the
whole thing. After the initial shock
and pain of the whole thing she seemed to be fine. The nest that was hiding under the deck? Is no more. For any of you who happened to notice, Joel broke the server
again. I am typing this without the
ability to post it. He told me he was
going to put a new Linux operating system on the server (vector) and that it should
work just fine. I warned him. I told him that the last time he tried to
install a different version of Linux that was we were out of commission for a
while. His response? How am I to learn? True, but why does it have to be at the
cost of MY website? So now I patiently
wait as he tries to install of a newer version of Mepis
Linux which is the version we’d been running in the first place. If it went well, you are reading this. If it did not, well… who knows when this
will get posted? |
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July 21, 2006 |
Remember Lilith Fair? It was a
“Celebration of Women in Music”. They
were held for three summers 1997-1999.
I attended in 1997 and 1999.
Both times were amazing! I saw
Jewel, Indigo Girls, Sarah MacLachlan, Shawn
Colvin, Patty Griffin, Sheryl Crow, Dixie Chics,
and Dar Williams. There were others
but the ones I mentioned above are the ones that truly stand out in my
head. And one artist who will never
cease to amaze me is Dar Williams. I was introduced to her music at Lilith
Fair in 1997. The song that completely
stood out for me at that time was What
Do you Hear in These Sounds better known in my head as “The Therapy
Song”. I bought her CD and listened to
it probably way more than my college roommates would have preferred (sorry
ladies!). Then I attended a concert of hers at There are many reasons that I am such a big fan. Dar has this indescribable ability to tell
a story both through song and conversation.
Her music is well-written while remaining subtle and profound. As a woman I am drawn to her ability to
help me feel comfortable with myself and the world we live in. The best word I can use to describe a Dar
experience is: empowering. There is a
spiritual depth to her music and lyrics. Last night Joel and I attended a Dar concert at the MN Zoo. Concerts at the zoo are an unforgettable
experience because they take place in a small amphitheater with great
acoustics and great scenery. Couple
that with Dar’s ability to draw you in with her music and it becomes an
experience that stays with you. I am at a place in my life where being a mom is above all the most
important thing I do. My kids are the
source of my energy. They are a part
of my every thought and deed. As I
listened to Dar’s lyrics and stories, the raising of my children was at the
front of my mind. There were songs that reminded me what it is that I want to accomplish
as a parent; especially as a mother to girls. I want them to be confident and strong and
to know that they can do whatever they choose to. One of the songs is: As Cool As
I Am. It is about how women are
forced to live up to the standards of other women and she declares: Oh -- and that’s not
petty, as cool as I am, I thought you’d know
this already, Oh -- and that’s not
easy, I don’t know what you saw, I want somebody who sees
me, Another song is called The One
Who Knows. It is about being a
parent. It is about wanting your child
to grow and love and experience. It is
about letting them make mistakes and to learn from them. Here is an excerpt: You'll fly away And we’ve told you about how we want our girls to be treated as equal
to boys in the scheme of life. We want
them to know that they are as capable as boys to accomplish their goals. We don’t want them to judge themselves
based solely upon their looks. The
song When I Was a Boy is a
beautiful illustration of the innocence and naiveté of youth. When you are young, you don’t understand
the differences between being a girl an being a
boy. Joel and I believe it is our job
to help the girls to retain this ideal when the innocence and naiveté wear
off. Here is sample of those lyrics: And like the woods where
I would creep, it's a secret I can keep The song After All ends with
the following: And now I laugh at how
the world changed me And that is
exactly how I feel about my life. I’ve
changed as I’ve grown up (and I’m certainly not finished with that task yet)
and I’m so glad to know that “life chose me”.
It is my hope that my kids feel this sense of belonging as they grow
up. I want this so much for Adiana who
has already experienced so much in her 2 ½ years. I hope she knows that “life chose her” and
she is loved beyond belief. Since I didn’t know how to cleverly weave this into the post thus far,
I’ll just abruptly tell you about two of my favorite things said last night. “Minnesotans use some creative parenting.” Chuckling ensued to which Dar quickly
added, “that’s not a euphemism”. During the song We’re heading up to the cabin for the weekend. I promise pictures next week! I’ve been lazy… |
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July 18, 2006 |
I think I am back in business for real. Joel finally was able to set me up with a
wired port! This means I have access
to the network and therefore can easily update the blog
once again. Huge sighs or relief? Over the HOT weekend, we went to Cascade
Bay. The girls absolutely loved
it! Especially Aselya. She is a little dare-devil. She kept jumping from the side of the pool
into 3 ft of water (where I was standing to catch her). She is learning to go under water. She plugs her nose, jumps up, lets go of
her nose and splashes under. She
doesn’t quite realize that she needs to continue to plug her nose while the
submersion takes place. They were
tired and sad to go home. On Sunday, we headed up to the cabin for the day. Joel made lunch for his family. We had a Korean dish called Kal bi. Joel has
been working on perfecting the dish this summer and I think he’s done
it. Everyone seemed to really enjoy
it. We then spent the afternoon playing in the lake. The shoreline at the cabin leaves a bit to
be desired so we tend to take the pontoon to the middle of the lake, put on
life-jackets and swim out there. The
two year olds (namely Jacob and Aselya) have taken to jumping off the pontoon
into their daddy’s arms. They do this
multiple times and get a huge kick out of it.
Next year, they’ll be jumping off the pontoon and swimming over to the
ladder by themselves. I’m going to
look into swimming lessons for the kids.
They really seem ready (and willing). The ride home from the cabin left a bit to be desired. I started to feel a bit nauseated and my
head hurt so I asked not to drive.
Xaden wasn’t in the mood for a car ride and kept crying out. Aselya and Adi were tired so they kept
whining and crying and such. I
reclined my seat and tried my best to ignore it all and fall asleep. No such luck. I had to try to help Xaden. Then I’d lie down in the back of the
van. The girls were saying: “Mommy,
you k? K, Mommy?” I told them I was tired. I then told Joel, “we may need to
stop”. He told me to just let him
know. Within a couple of minutes, I was grabbing a kiddie
towel and letting the content of my stomach go. It was horrible and I started crying and
whining like a HUGE baby. First, I
felt horrible. Sick horrible. Second, I vomited on the carper of our
“new” van. Third, I just wanted to be
home. We stopped at a park where I
tried to clean myself up a bit and Joel took care of the floor mat
(thankfully I vomited on the floor mat and not the floor itself). We were still quite a distance from home. About 20 minutes from home, I did it
again. This time, I had a pile of
newspaper as my bucket. Horrible. Horrible.
And even more horrible. We made
it home where Joel was my hero. He
took care of the kids and the van and let me soak in the tub (and vomit a bit
more). I went to sleep and he brought
me some water and a bucket (for his sake or mine?). I spent most of yesterday morning in bed and feel much better
now. I am not quite sure what it was,
but I am glad it is no more. Actually,
there is one remnant. My abdominal
muscles ache. Has that ever happened
to you? My stomach worked so hard that
I am still aching two days later. That
hasn’t ever happened to me before. Today was the first time we went back to the van. I took the girls to the library. We got into the van and they said, “Mommy
sick? Mommy spit?” What a great thing for them to remember and
remind me. Such nice girls. One last thing before I go, did I tell you Xaden is crawling? He is.
It is really cute. He loves
getting into everything. He’s a
sweetheart. Also he discovered that he
can pull himself up on furniture. He
isn’t really good at that skill yet, but give him a
few days and he’ll be walking along the couch like nobody’s business. |
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July 13, 2006 |
Naptime today? Splendid. Aselya went right down. No complaints. No cries.
Just pure and utter bliss (for me).
It could be all the activities from the morning. We spent the early morning outside where it
was sunny and HOT. We sidewalk chalked
on the driveway and got the pool ready for swimming. Then the Monsons came over to visit. The girls loved it! Samantha found a tree frog and allowed the
girls to hold it as it hopped all over the house (and my shoulder—and I
didn’t even squeal). It is really fun
to watch them get excited over the little stuff. We also played in the pool (ice bath
according to Debbie) for a bit. Since
their departure, the girls keep asking for them. Especially Kameron. I am not sure if I ever mentioned that we have pretty much taken a
break from Adiana’s potty training.
She gets so upset about it and I didn’t want to push it. Today, Karmeron
went potty and showed off her big girl undies. Adi suddenly wanted to go potty. And she produced some. I was excited and hoped that she would be
more willing to use the potty. She has
yet to want to go back on. She claims
“I already did it”. Apparently, she
only needs to use the potty once a day.
Enough potty talk already. You know my niece, Marissa?
She’s here with us this week.
Her daycare lady is on vacation.
It is fun to have her here. The
girls can’t get enough of her. In any
case, she is going to be a big sister!
The expected arrival date is February 22, 2007. We are all very excited! Marissa had some trouble pronouncing Adi. She called her “Agi”
all the time. We thought it was really
cute. About a week ago, Aselya started
saying “Agi”.
Adi looked at her and said “I’m not Agi, I’m
Adi!”. Aselya
(having her dad’s wonderful sense of humor) walked around in circles saying “Agi, Agi, Agi,
Agi, Agi”. To which Adi did not enjoy. She very firmly stated “I’m not Agi, I’m Adi”. When Marissa came back over this week, i
became commonplace to call Adi by Agi. All day long, we heard “Agi”,
“Agi” and more “Agi” from
both Marissa and Aselya. It was cute
and funny and Adi didn’t seem to mind.
And now? Marissa can say “Adi”. It pretty much happened overnight. No more Agi. Some recent random quotes: “Hey! I’m watching TV” ~Adi “Delicious Pizza” ~ Aselya “I need my baby soup.” ~ Adi “Mommy boobies? Feed Xaden?”
~Aselya “Aselya boobies too?” ~Aselya “Help me! Help me! Ayudame!” ~Adi |
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July 12, 2006 |
Aselya had quite the day today! She has recently had issues with bed time and nap time. Basically, she doesn’t care to have
them. She’d rather stay up and be
tired and cranky and wear on your very last nerve. We do not allow her to get away with such
behaviors. This means that, at times,
she is quite unhappy and cries LOUDLY. Usually what occurs is she gets really upset and cries her little
heart out and then Joel goes and sits in a dark room with her until she is
ready to go to sleep. The process
usually takes about 10 minutes. Joel
knows Aselya is ready when he asks her “What time is it?” and she says “Nap
time. I’ll go to sleep.” Last night, Joel wasn’t home at the beginning of bed time. So I was going to do put her down by
myself. Before I go any further, can I
just say? What a joke. I try Joel’s method (incorrectly I might
add) and as I am trying to get her to sit, I realize that she? Is playing us. Her cry was fake. All she wanted some extra attention before
going to bed. That and a few more
minutes of awake time. After discussing this last night, we decided that we needed a new
tactic with her. I told Joel that we
need to keep her in her room and not give in to her little game. Naptime was the first test of “Whose will
is stronger: Aselya’s or her parent’s?”
She stood at her door and “cried” and screamed for us for about 20
minutes. She quieted down. We went to check on her only to find that
there was an obstacle blocking the door way and we could not enter. The obstacle? Aselya.
She woke up with indentations in her skin due to the carpet. She did not like it and said “Aselya owie floor”. We
asked her if she was going to stay in her bed. She said she was. And now you think I am going to talk about bedtime, right? I’m not.
At least not yet. That’ll come
later. Be patient. We’ve been working on this whole potty training thing for awhile. Actually, we’ve been pretty lax about
it. Aselya is doing a great job as of
late. Not great enough that I would
trust her in a pair of real underwear, but I can put her on the potty at just
about any time of the day and she’ll produce something. So she gets it. She knows what she is doing. This afternoon, I was innocently sitting with her on my lap. She was cuddling and we were talking to my
brother and Joel. Suddenly, I felt
something warm and wet between my legs and it did not come from me. Aselya peed on me (and her and the
couch). Her pull up was in a sort of “snuggie” position and thus did not hold the pee where it
was supposed to. Better yet? Why didn’t she tell me she had to go? And if that isn’t enough for one day.
I’ve got another one for you.
We ate dinner out on the deck.
Joel and I were trying to relax and chat over dinner. Xaden was sitting in his bouncy chair enjoying
the sunshine and everyone’s company.
Aselya and Adi were finished eating and were playing with their chairs
and such. Out of nowhere, Xaden
screams out a cry. It sounded much
like the screaming cry he has when he gets his shots from the doctor. Aselya was very close to him. I said, “Aselya what did you do?” She looked at me with those big brown eyes and said “Aselya bite
Xaden”. I looked at his little arm and
sure enough there was a circle of evidence.
You could very clearly see Aselya’s teeth marks on his arm. Thankfully he did not cry long. Aselya was in a time out for about 10
minutes. She seemed genuinely sorry. She’s 2.
Where do they get this stuff? And then it was bedtime. She
was mad. She was not having it. She “had to go caca”. She wanted mommy. She wanted daddy. She wanted nothing to do with her bed. We put her in room and walked out. She cried.
She tried to open the door. 10
minutes later, there was silence. She
was fast asleep on her bed. Victory
for us? I’m not completely sure, but
we’re well on our way. How much do I love this little girl?
She is precious. Every day she
makes me laugh. And even when she is
trying my last nerve, I am so grateful that I have such a remarkable little
girl. Awww…
shucks. |
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July 11, 2006 |
Sorry I was away for so long. I
wasn’t expecting to be, but as I have been telling everyone: Joel broke the
internet. What really occurred is we
switched from obtaining our internet through cable to using DSL. We did this partially for… YOU. Why?
Well we are hoping our upload speeds are faster. That is, we hope that when YOU go to our
page, it will appear on your screen faster than it did before. We did this at the expense of our download
time. This means that when I go to a
webpage, I can see the different components pop into place rather than it all
appearing at once like magic. But
enough boring talk. How are you? I’ve missed
you. It has been a crazy month or so. First, we moved. Yes, the city
girl went country. Or at least went to
the suburb. There was only one
casualty in our move. Our Papasan chair. My
brother (who also happens to be the one who originally gifted me the chair)
tied it to the back of Joel’s truck.
As Joel started to drive he noticed that it was a little bouncy, but
figured all would be well. It
wasn’t. He drove onto the freeway and
the chair acted much like a parachute.
It pulled itself away and went flying onto 94. Thankfully there were neither accidents nor
injuries. A semi was behind Joel and
it helped in the smashing of the Papasan. By the time I traveled the same road (about
20 minutes later), the evidence of the chair had
been removed. I also have to take this opportunity to thank Joel’s parents, my
awesome brother, and Super for all of their help during our move. We wouldn’t have been able to do it without
you and your boxes. So thank you. The world now knows how much we appreciate
you. How are the new digs?
Super! Aselya and Adiana said
goodbye to the old house and haven’t really asked about it. I think it would be interesting to drive by
and see what they would have to say.
They love their new room and already say “we’re home” when they see us
pulling up to the new house. The only
thing they seem to miss is “Mommy, where the big piano is?” We donated Joel’s piano to a struggling
musician and will eventually replace it.
For now, we have Aselya’s toy piano and Joel’s electronic keyboard. Neither of which fill Joel’s musical void. Second? Sarah visited. She brought Xaden a really nice hat and we
took lots of pictures of him wearing it.
And? Not one picture of
Sarah. I am saddened by this. Aselya and Adiana went swimming while Sarah
was here. Of course, there are lots of
pictures of this. Again? Not one picture of Sarah. I suck.
The girls were very happy to wear their “baby suits” for Sarah. And they just don’t stop talking about how
much they enjoy wearing their “baby suits”.
As Sarah said “It is so funny because most kids want to be big and they
want to put on their ‘baby suits’”. It
was really nice to have you here, Sarah!
Thanks for all the great fun and for going to college. With me.
Third? We traveled. No big trips. We went to the cabin to celebrate
Independence Day and to At the cabin, all the kids went into the lake and loved it! They also could not get enough of the
pontoon. They wanted to go on many
boat rides. They are very excited
about their upcoming cabin trips. In This is all for now. I am sure
that much more has happened, but I’ve been so busy with all the happenings
that I have not taken as much time to notice the little things. More to come soon… |
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June 14, 2006 |
Another quick update! We’re packing. We’re
moving. The big day? Friday!
That means I better get my butt in gear to get this place packed
up. I’m not doing too shabby
actually. Currently, I am out of boxes
so I wait for more… In the meantime, I am doing laundry.
Because who wants to pack dirty clothes? Aselya and Adiana are making use of the
“strange” things around the house.
Poster tubes are telescopes and underbed
storage bins are boats. And they? Pirates.
Please don’t ask how they know about pirates for this I cannot tell
you. Funny. Xaden is approaching the 6 month mark—it comes less than a week
away. And? He thinks he wants to crawl. Every time I put this boy down, he rolls
over and gets up on his hands and knees and starts rocking. Yesterday I watched him maneuver his way
around the living room floor in hopes of securing a duplo
horse. He won. And it was so funny to watch him roll and
scoot with such determination. I finally posted his 4 month pics on www.xaden.net AND I learned how to post
videos. I posted two (they are a bit
old now) and will get so more up once I get a bit settled at the new
place. I have to hook the video camera
up to a computer and that is too much to ask right now. The ones on the site are from our digital
camera and I may add one more… I’ll keep you posted. Also? Some of you know the
significance of the phrase “It’s Open” to me.
Well, if you know what it is… it shall be no more! Isn’t that so sad? If you don’t know and really want to know,
I’ll tell you, but not here. You have
to ask in Email fashion. |
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June 9, 2006 |
Catching up? Perhaps… I’ve been away and busy and not motivated
to tell you all about it. But
now? Am here. Will update. First? Our move. It should happen within the next couple of
weeks. Joel and his parents have been working
frantically getting the house we will be living in ready for our
arrival. It needs paint and some new
flooring in places. It is coming
along. I? Have been packing. Salooooowly
packing. But, it too is coming along. Second? Wedding pics. Here is a sample of the
professional ones! If you want to see them all, they are at www.imagequix.com The photographer ID is
A9N8693 and password is bergeman Enjoy them! I’ll probably still post a few once my
brother burns a CD for me. If you know
him, feel free to send hate mail to his email address. Ha!
Ha! He’ll love me for that. Third? My kids are cute. Adiana has created her own version of Mary
Had a Little Lamb. It goes like this: Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb Mary had a little lamb, it’s ;askjej sjl;kjew no Mary had a little dog, little dog, little dog Mary had a little dog, it’s ;askjej sjl;kjew no Mary had a little horse, little horse, little horse Mary had a little horse, it’s ;askjej sjl;kjew no The latest question around here is “What’s this/that?” At lunch, Adiana saw a picture of an
octopus. And said “What’s this?” I said “An octopus. Do you know
how many legs it has?” She said “Yes. Eight.” Brilliance. I tell you. Aselya has her own agenda these days.
Most often it involves pushing Adiana off the bed or telling mommy
“No”. She doesn’t get away with it by
any means, but wow… I just want to lose my patience some days. Her latest “complaint” is
not wanting to have their bedroom door shut at bed/nap time. Stinker. Aselya loves water. And
especially loves the pool. She asks
for it a lot and given our most recent weather--- she has gotten her
wish. Adiana is not as big a fan of
the pool. She puts her feet in, but
would rather not sit down. Xaden loves
the pool too. He splashes and laughs. He actually laughs a lot these days.
He has this belly laugh that makes me want to melt whenever I hear
it. It used to be that only Adi and
Aselya could get him to do it, but now?
He does it for me too. All I
have to do is smile and laugh at him and it triggers the laughter. So cute. I suppose this is enough for now.
I make no promises of the next update, but remind me to show you a
picture of how Xaden sleeps in his crib.
Way. Too. Cute. |
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May 31, 2006 |
There is only one more day left of May!!! Where did the time go? There isn’t much to update today… just thought I’d check in. I’m working on the wedding photos—I sure
hope they are worth the wait. I wanted to get these photos up from last week at the park. Marissa is not spending the days with us anymore and we miss her. We will have her this weekend though (her parents are on their honeymoon). We are looking forward to it.
They are having a picnic lunch, sitting on their "friend" Rocko, and Marissa is sleeping in the swing. She was so tired one of the days! Too funny! Xaden loves sweet potatoes. He gobbled
them up yesterday like mad. We are headed to Como Zoo this morning. I mentioned the zoo and they automatically
wanted grandma… Can you guess who
normally brings them to the zoo? |
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May 28, 2006 |
I am sure you are all anxious to hear about the wedding, right?! Well, it was fabulous. And that is all you get for now because
I? Have no pictures. It was too much for me to carry my camera
around. But? LOTS of pictures were taken and I promise
to get some posted ASAP. Until that happens, I’ll tease you with these: Guest caption in photo 1 by Super Friend- Sarah!
Her: "Hey, I'm crazy lamby-front. I got a lamby comin' out of my stomach, and it's makin' me crazy! Now gimme some candy!!!" Him: "She better not push me over!"
"The guy in this mirror? He's quite the looker!"
"What does it take to get a bit of milk in this place?"
"Hmmm... do you think they'll notice if I grab that toy and run?"
"We are the cutest best of friends!"
"Can I get a little peace and quiet? I'm trying to find the mouse on this page."
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May 24, 2006 |
Okay, so here is the thing. I
have been thinking and thinking about how to explain to everyone why we don’t
want our girls to think they have to get all dressed up, wear cutesy pink
girl clothing and shoes, or wear things in their hair. We also don’t tell our kids that they are
pretty or cute. We tell them they are
smart and that they can do anything.
We teach them to be nice to animals and to not be afraid of bugs. We tell them to try again. We tell them we love them. We tell them they can do it! We let them know that they mean the world
to us. And I just don’t know how to
better explain it to you. I want them
to grow up being proud of who they are and what they can do. And I’ve been putting off writing about it
because I just don’t know how to adequately express this conviction of ours. And then? Dooce
did it for me. Read her entry. It pretty much sums it up. Thanks, Dooce! |
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May 23, 2006 |
As I have mentioned before, the amount of laundry that has to get done
in this house is extraordinary. Sometimes,
the girls want to assist in the process.
They help put clothes in the washer.
They also help transfer them to the dryer. They can’t help fold as I am too particular
for that. They always help put away
(thus ruining the particularity I had in the previous statement). Their favorite items to put away are their
socks. (I seriously don’t know what it is, but they love socks. They play with them constantly and I STILL
cannot get Aselya to wear her sandals sans socks. Suggestions?) As Adiana was putting away socks the other day, I listened to this: “uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis”. She then
walked away to retrieve more socks.
Upon her return, I asked her what comes after seis? “Siete, ocho, nueve.” And she was out of socks. She can count to twelve in Spanish and
understands one-to-one correspondence in both English and Spanish. We are now working on colors in Spanish. And now let me talk about: Me.
As you know, there is this wedding this weekend. I had to get my eyebrows waxed. I went to a place other than where I
normally go due to time constraints.
What a big mistake! It is
horrible because 1) my left brow is lower than my right brow and 2) my left
brow is closer to the center of my face than my right brow. Do you like it? I bet you never thought you’d see my eyes
this closely, did you? I can’t believe
it. I am going to try to get it fixed,
but I don’t have a lot of time on my hands this week. |
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May 22, 2006 |
There is a spot on our couch that appears to be a great place for
falling asleep. The boppy pillow is a requirement. This can be witnessed by the viewing of the
following pics:
We were having lunch last week and Xaden pooped his diaper. I went upstairs to change him and came back to this:
Thanks Aselya! I asked her to
help clean it up. She wanted to then
eat the food she threw on the floor. Ummm…. No. |
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May 21, 2006 |
Since the weather has been so nice lately, we’ve been spending a lot
of time at the playground. Most often we
are there with other two-year-olds.
But today? There was a boy
there who appeared to be about five. I
witnessed an interaction between the boy and Adiana. Adi was very curious about the boy and she appeared to want to
befriend him. She walked near to him
and pointed to herself and said “that’s Adi.”
The boy responded: “What’s your name?” Adiana: “I’m two” (and yes, she held up her two fingers) The boy: “Your name is two?” They looked at one another in a confused sort of way and they both
went over to the playground equipment. The boy climbed UP the slide.
Adiana tried to follow suit saying “be careful” the whole time. Adiana, unfortunately, didn’t make it up
the slide before another child wanted to go down. Instead she climbed the stairs and watched
the boy mentioned above. She kept
telling him “be careful”. He then went
down the slide to which Adiana yelled out with much enthusiasm “YOU DID IT!” She was so excited for his
accomplishment. And to him? No big deal. I enjoyed the interaction because I’ve watched as the interactions
between Aselya and Adiana have matured from lots of random sounds and
intonations at one another to actual conversations. The conversations, of course, are at the
level of two-year-olds. Clearly
Adiana’s language ability is there, but it is not at the level of a
five-year-old. The boy paid more
attention to the choice of words rather than both her words and body
language. The other fun thing about the park is the love of the swing. Adiana and Aselya love to swing. And they love to swing as high as the swing
will go (they are in baby swings of course).
I asked if they were high enough to touch the sky. They were.
And then they touched a plane and the sun. They soak things up. It makes me laugh. |
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May 20, 2006 |
So much for my high hopes of updating more this week. I just couldn’t do it. I had book club last night. I didn’t start the book until Monday and it
was 436 pages. I managed to finish in
time, but it meant no time for updates. We had a really fun week! The girls love having Marissa to play with everyday! And Marissa adores Adiana. Aselya is a bit too high strung for Marissa’s tastes. Aselya is loud and sometimes quite obstinate. Marissa, on the other hand, is quiet and mild-mannered. Marissa gives Aselya these looks of:
“What IS your deal?”
One of my favorite stories from the week happened while playing in the
backyard. We have three little bikes
that the girls ride. Aselya likes to
ride one in particular. When she
rides, she tends to exert a ton of energy with her legs and then hold her
legs up as the bike continues down the sidewalk and into the fence. It’s
hilarious. In any case, Marissa was
sitting on the steps and Aselya was riding her bike (the uphill
direction). As Aselya neared Marissa,
Adiana jumped in and said “Stop. Selya no hurt Rissa. Careful.
Turn round now.” And
Aselya? Listened. Adiana is so thoughtful and always watches
out for Marissa. It is really fun to
see. Joel is gone again this weekend.
He is in The guys met here (they took our van on the trip), had some breakfast,
and were entertained by the likes of Aselya, Adiana, and Marissa. The girls loved the attention! Marissa showed Rory how Eeyore
could slide down the roof of the Little People Farm. Adiana allowed Rory to push her backward on
the couch. She laughed
hysterically. Aselya? She ate.
Two and a half helpings of egg bake.
Too funny. It hasn’t been too bad with Joel being gone. Jim and Sharon watched the girls while I
attended book club last night. And my
cousin Taira is here tonight helping. This is going to be another busy week. The big wedding is next Saturday. We are really looking forward to it. I’m sure I’ll be posting lots of fun
pictures! |
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May 14, 2006 |
Happy
Mother’s Day!!! One of my students sent me the link to this hilarious video. It makes me laugh out loud. Here are a few reasons why I love being a mother:
Today we went to get haircuts for Adiana and Aselya. Aselya is so funny! She sat in that chair with a look of
seriousness on her face. She did not
move unless clearly instructed to do so.
Adiana, on the other hand, wanted to twist and turn all about and did
so with a huge smile on her face.
Another adorable feat Adiana accomplished lately is the ability to
hold up two fingers to showcase her age.
Until now, she would say “Adi’s two” but only hold up 1 finger. It is adorable to watch her get ready
because she really has to concentrate to get her fingers to do as she asks
them. She’s getting better… soon,
it’ll be second nature. |
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May 12, 2006 |
Really?
Friday? Already? The week has gone relatively quickly and I
haven’t updated a bit…
We have spent our days playing with Marissa… it has been so much fun! Three two-year-olds under one roof seems like it would be a lot, but it’s not really much different than two of them.
Adiana is so good about helping her to feel welcome. She helps her and comforts her and just generally makes sure that she is included. It’s fun to watch.
On Wednesday, we all five (Aselya, Adiana, Marissa, Xaden and I) walked about 3 blocks to a playground. Each of the girls took a turn falling (while wearing shorts) and getting skinned knees. They loved the park. Marissa especially liked the swing. It was a bucket swing and she could not get enough of it. She didn’t want to slide or play in the sand—swing, swing, swing! Even Xaden liked swinging.
A few suggestions for taking four children to the park:
I did 3 of the 7 successfully. You may be able to guess which 3.
The girls can entertain themselves with anything. I gave them some laundry baskets—they climbed in and out of them. They then pretended they were beds. It’s fun to watch their imaginations soar. My dad gave them a bunny that hops and sings as an Easter gift. They love it. They turn it on and hop with it. Initially, Marissa didn’t care for it. Today she loved it. She danced and hopped along with us.
We get two more FUN weeks with Marissa before the wedding and the big move. We can’t wait. I’ll try to do a better job of updating, but no promises…
Have a fantastic
weekend! Rain, rain… go away! |
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May 7, 2006 |
It was a very busy weekend for all of us… Joel chaperoned prom while I attended something “I am not allowed to
speak of here” on Saturday night. I am
not going to “speak of” it, but here is a picture of me and two of the other
attendees on the right. Don’t we look
adorable? Where were the children? In the
care of Frank and Taira. They had a slumber party! Three 2-year-olds and a four month
old. Everyone had a great time, but we
were all very tired today. It did not
stop us from heading down to Eric and Kathy’s for Jacob’s 2nd
birthday party and a Mom’s Day Celebration.
They were such great hosts! Our girls had an amazing time there because… there were baby goats,
kittens, chickens, cows, and ponies to see.
Aselya enjoyed looking and definitely not touching. Adiana ate it up! She could not have been more thrilled to
see and play with the animals. On the
right you can see a picture of Adiana kissing a pony! She was so excited to be among the animals. Veterinarian aspirations? Perhaps…
Xaden rolled from his back to his tummy today for the first time. Of course he did it when nobody was
looking! He is so much fun. I am putting some pics
of him on today just because I feel like showing his little tricks to you!
The first is Xaden trying with all his might to pick his head off the
pillow. He does this whenever he is on
his back. He really, really wants to
sit up. So we let him.
The second is of Xaden “sitting up” unassisted. He can do this for about 30 seconds at a
time. I put “sitting up” in quotes because
it looks more like a tummy tuck.
Next we have the fingers!!! He
uses his hands all the time now.
Sometimes to grab a toy and sometimes to calm himself. We have officially taken his nuk away from him.
He uses his hands to soothe himself.
And check out the drooly face! He is teething a bit… he may not cut a
tooth for awhile, but that doesn’t mean he can’t produce drool. Who does this liitle
man look like?
My all time favorite baby trick is toe time! I adore it when babies find their
feet. Xaden can not get enough of his
feet. He plays with them every chance
he gets. He puts them in his mouth or
just grabs them and starts playing roly poly. This makes diaper changes a bit more
difficult, but i. love. It.
Thanks Internet Friends for looking at our pictures. We have so much fun everyday!
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May 3, 2006 |
What do you think would happen if you put taco shells into the toaster
oven on the “toast” setting? I’m
asking… er… hypothetically of course. I think that maybe, possibly, well they
might just start on fire. And you may
just have to pour three glasses of water into the toaster oven to stop the
raging fire. You’d probably then have
to open a bunch of windows. And then
you might decide that taco shells taste great straight out of the package and
why would anyone want a warm taco shell anyway? I’m just thinking that. I went to work today. What did we do tonight? We had
a pajama party. And we watched a
movie. When I asked the girls if they
wanted to have a pajama party… Adi said “Party. No cake party.” How did she know that cake would not be
involved at this particular party? I
don’t know but I am glad she knew and didn’t get mad about the lack of cake
because how can you have a party without cake? Xaden is still a bit sick. You
can hear it in his sweet little cry.
But he is still smiling. He
loves the girls more and more everyday.
He looks across the room at them and just smiles. And they love him. They will hug him with all of their body
weight and he doesn’t seem to mind. It
is almost a welcome distraction from the kicking toys or musical toys he has
to entertain him. It’ll be interesting
when he becomes mobile to see how the three of them interact. |
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May 1, 2006 |
I guess I took a little break from here. Our family?
Sick again. I can’t even
believe it. I started it this
time. I thought it was allergies and just
ignored it, but started eating oranges like mad and even drinking orange
juice (I don’t drink juice much due to the high sugar content and my
predisposition for diabetes). Then I
noticed that Xaden had a bit of a runny nose.
This morning, he woke up with a slight fever and cough. And yesterday? Adi’s nose started running too. There are sneezes and coughs and all the
fun stuff that goes along with having a cold.
We’re having a new pity party around here. Want to join in? I guess there isn’t too much to update. I’m slowly trying to pack our
belongings. Why? We are going to move to I know. I know. You don’t have me pegged as a suburban
girl. And I am coming to terms with
that myself. I am a city girl. Strike that. I am a In other news, Adiana is learning Spanish. She gets it from Dora. She started walking around motioning with
her hands “pequena” and “grande”. Translated they are “little” and
“big”. It’s cute. Both girls can count in Spanish, but not as
well as they do in English. We’re
working on that a little bit. I have
taken to saying some things to them in Spanish and it doesn’t seem to faze
them. They just try to figure out what
I am saying. And I make motions. “Aqui esta tu agua”
as I hold up their glass of water and wave them over… The girls love. To. Sing. Their
latest favorite song is “Jesus Loves Me”.
I learned the sign language for the refrain back when I was in Sunday
school so we work on that some too.
Adiana will just randomly start singing it. My favorite part is where she sings “they
are weak but He is strong”. She
sounds like such a big girl. As you
may or may not be aware, I am not the world’s best singer so I feel bad
teaching songs because I don’t want them to learn them off key. They seem to be singing them in the correct
key. It helps to have a talented piano
player who can play the songs for them and put them in the right key. Another favorite is “Itsy Bitsy Spider”. They are great at that one too. Dora uses the tune for one of her
songs. Interestingly, the tune was
being used on their LeapFrog toy and Adi started
singing “Itsy Bitsy Spider” and ignoring the lyrics the toy was using. Aselya sits down at the piano, plays keys and just belts out random
words and sounds. It is adorable. We’ll see where these interests take them… |
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April 27, 2006 |
My favorite thing that happened today: Xaden was in his seat as we
were headed out the door for our play date.
Adiana went over to him and started talking to him. He giggled and giggled and giggled. It was a pure belly giggle and it was
completely adorable. I tried to whip
out the camera to share the video with all of you, but… these are children
and their actions do not last long. :) We had a fun play date with my friend Janell’s
girls: Hannah and Avery. It was so
much fun for all of us. I rarely get
to see Janell these days so it was a really nice
treat. I am hoping we get to do such
more often. Aselya and Adiana were calm, cool, and collected until it was time to
go. And then? Everything fell apart. It took Aselya about 30 seconds to get over
it, stop crying, and kindly say goodbye.
Adiana? Another story. She basically threw herself across the
threshold of the door and lay there in what appeared to be complete agony. “I! Can’t! Leave! These! Toys! Or! Fun! Playmates!” (Interpretation) We said goodbye and I let Adi “sit it out” on the front porch while I
buckled the other two into their seats.
Adi? Still crying and is face
planted onto the porch floor. A bit of
a drama queen. I went and asked her if
she was ready to be a nice girl? “Yes. Nice girl.” She then knocked on the door and apologized to Janell
for being naughty. I took her to the
van, we pulled away, and she lost it again.
I had to pull over and let her sit it out for a while again. It took about five minutes. Then?
Nice girl. We talked, sang, and
counted the rest of the way home.
Wow. She can be stubborn sometimes. And then because she is so sweet, she says things like: “Xaden, you k? K, Xaden?” “Better now, Xaden, no cry.
Better now.” Too much love, I tell you. Too
much! |
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April 25, 2006 |
Joel has returned! Hooray! The girls were more than ecstatic to see
him! We ended up allowing the girls to
wait up for him on Monday night. He arrived
a little after 9 pm and the girls were then in bed before 9:30. The house felt “full” again. His trip went well. He enjoyed his workshop, and got to spend
time with his Peace Corps friend. Xaden went in for his well-baby four month check-up. What a sweet little guy! He was all smiles. He weighs a whopping 15 lbs, 10 oz., and is
24.5 inches long. This puts him in the
65th percentile for weight and the 35th percentile for
height (obviously my child). He
received four immunizations today. He
did not enjoy them much but settled down rather quickly. During conversation with our pediatrician, I told her that Xaden is
able to get on his side, but has not commenced rolling over as of yet. And then?
He performed. We put him on his
tummy (to test his strength) and within seconds, he rolled onto his
back. We may be raising a little
ham! There have not been any repeat
performances. They’ll come soon
enough. My goal is to get Xaden’s 3 months pictures page updated this week…
I’ll let you know when it happens! |
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April 23, 2006 |
Things are going pretty well in Joel’s absence. The girls really miss him. I do too.
It’s hard to believe (as there are four of us home), but it is lonely
here without him. A favorite question from the girls is: “Where __________ go?” The blank has been filled this weekend with
‘daddy’. They ask and say “I don’t
know, where did he go?” In unison, they reply “Airplane.” Yesterday we met up with Kellie and TJ at the park. It was a really nice afternoon. There were lots of children at the
playground. A couple of girls
“adopted” Adi and Aselya for a little while.
They would catch them when they went down the slides or protect them
as they tried to climb a structure. It
was cute. I forget, however, what
older (unsupervised) kids can be like.
There was some sand throwing and pushing down of one another. I tried to block them from Aselya and Adi’s
line of vision. After playing on the slides, swings and in the sand (we dumped LOTS of
said sand out of our shoes when we got home!) we went to Perkins for
dinner. The girls got to share a
chicken and cheese quesadilla and eat the bacon that came on my turkey club
sandwich (oops, I didn’t pay enough attention to realize that I was ordering
bacon). Adiana was really cute as she
ate her quesadilla. She meticulously
picked all of the chicken and cheese out of it and then ate the
tortilla. Aselya then had a bit of a rough night. I think it was because “daddy
missing”. She woke up
NEEEEEEEEEEEEEDDDDDDING water. She
woke Adi. And then she
NEEEEEEEEEEEEEDDDDDDED water too. I
gave them water. Aselya kept crying
out and waking up Adiana. I took her
out of there and let her lay with me for a little bit. Any normal child would think this was the
greatest thing and fall right to sleep.
Not Aselya. She has never slept
a night in our bed and it isn’t because I haven’t tried. She just won’t and/or can’t do it. She and I just hung out there for what
seemed a very LONG time. I am sure I
dozed off a couple of times only to have her wake me again. After a good couple of hours, I brought her
back to her bed. She cried for about
30 seconds and was out. And then Xaden
awoke… Needless to say, I was a bit tired today. Thankfully all three kids fell asleep at
the same time this afternoon so I was able to take a short nap. It was another beautiful day so we spent
the majority of it outside. Adiana is
becoming really great at drawing faces.
We’ve been using sidewalk chalk and both girls always ask me to draw
them. I draw a circle and then ask
them what goes inside. They tell me
(usually in this order): nose, mouth, eyes, ears, and hair. Adi now draws a (oblique) circle and says:
eyes, mouth, and nose, as she draws them in.
The hair is generally in the wrong place, but she’s only two… Here is a little something that happened outside this evening. Act 1: Scene 1: Front steps of
our house, Aselya uses sidewalk chalk to color on the door. Aselya laughs mischievously. Scene 2: Front sidewalk,
about a foot from the stairs. Adiana
approaches Aselya and looks her straight in the eye. Adiana: No writing on
door. Naughty. Okay?
Naughty! Aselya nods
obediently. Scene 3: Front steps of
our house, Aselya walks straight for the front door. Aselya (looks directly at the door): Sorry door. Adiana: Good girl. Have I mentioned that Adiana is a bit bossy? Oh, and she mimics everything we do. Hence the “scenes” from above. Tonight I learned that the best time to vacuum is right when you put
the kids down to sleep. They may still
be a bit upset (aka crying) about having to go to bed so the sound of the
vacuum drowns out the tears and by the time you’re done: asleep. This worked with Xaden and Aselya
tonight. Adiana was very nice and
went to sleep without any tears. Oh, and also… I took the foil off of one of the windows. Why?
Well, it is really nice in the afternoon to make it dark in the
room. But? At night it is Duh. |
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April 22, 2006 |
As you know, one of my most recent addictions is reading blogs. One blog that I ready almost daily is www.dooce.com. She has a daughter who is just a couple
months older than Aselya. Recently, dooce put aluminum foil on her daughter’s window in order
to block out the light. When I first
read about it, I found it a bit strange.
I mean, who thinks to put foil on the window? A couple weeks ago, I decided that I would start getting up in the
morning before Joel headed off to work.
I wanted to be able to shower and have some time for me in the morning
before the kids woke up. They were usually
asleep until 8 am so I could potentially have an hour and a half of Elena
time. But. Aselya started to wake up at 6:40 a.m. Initially I believed that my alarm clock
was waking her. I stopped using it and
asked Joel to wake me. She continued
to wake up. I thought I was making too
much noise. I wasn’t. It turned out that she was waking up due to
the early morning sunshine. And
then? To make it worse, she was only
napping for an hour to an hour and 15 minutes. Normally her naps were about 2 hours
long. Thus, a nice break in the day
for me… Xaden is usually awake during that time, but I only have to entertain
one vs. three. I thought that perhaps
her body was requiring less sleep.
But. Around 6 at night, she
would turn into this incredibly awful, whiny, brat. I am not kidding. She would be such a little bear. Neither Joel nor I wanted to be mean to
her, but she was out of control. She
spent a lot of time sitting on her little butt. And then I remembered. I
remembered that dooce put aluminum foil on the
window to block out the light. I
thought I’d give it a try. Before
their nap yesterday, Adi and Aselya watched as I put foil on their windows. They then took a 3 hour nap. They slept from 1 – 4. And this morning? I woke them up at 8:30. They were up late because I we didn’t get
home until 10:00 last night so it was a good amount of sleep. And today?
Perfect angels. They are being
so nice. They are getting their
required amount of sleep and are now happy.
Who knew that all the time I waste reading blogs
could actually help me? |
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April 21, 2006 |
Xaden is four months today (oops… I had my dates mixed up,
tomorrow)! Yay! I am thinking that this is going to be the
month where he will start to roll over (on command… just like a dog!) and
quite possibly sit up. He seems that
he may sit up before rolling over. He
can, at this point, hold himself up for a little while. It looks a bit uncomfortable though as he
uses his stomach muscles to keep himself there. I bet that is difficult to imagine… I was talking to a friend of mine today… she has a baby boy 3 months
older than Xaden and is pregnant again.
I wish her lots of luck… I know that two under 2 is going to be a lot
of work for her (as it is for anybody).
I refrained from giving her the advice I heard the other day which was
“now you lay off on having any more babies”. Joel left for LA this morning.
And he isn’t even going to see Ellen.
He comes back on Monday evening.
For those of you who are not with me… yet… that leaves me with three
children for FOUR days all. By. Myself.
I may need a large sanity break when he returns. The kids will all be asleep when he returns
on Monday so they won’t even see him until Tuesday. This actually means that I will be with
them for FIVE days, but who is counting? Aselya is at a terrible two stage.
She cries about everything. Her
milk in the wrong cup? Cry. The wrong Dora episode? Cry.
Not THOSE socks. Cry. No hat when it is 70 degrees outside. Cry.
The phone is ringing. Cry. Time for a bath? Cry.
She has been doing a lot of sitting and a lot of saying of the words
“I’m sorry. Nice girl now.” We don’t have big plans for the weekend… it should be interesting. |
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April 18, 2006 |
Today was another beautiful day!
We went walking… played sidewalk chalk… and ran around the yard like
crazy fools. Aselya and Adiana are so nice to each other (most of the time). They used to have conversations that
involved a lot of blabbering and not many comprehendible words. Lately, they have conversations like this: A1: Want to go bye-bye? A2: Nods. A1: Okay, let’s go bye-bye. A2: Hungry? Eat breakfast? A1: Hungry. A2: Eat breakfast, please. It is fun to watch them play together.
Today, they held hands while we walked around the block. We happened upon a couple of fire
hydrants. Have you ever noticed how
much fire hydrants look like robots? I
hadn’t until Adiana screamed “Robot!” and went running over to greet Mr. Fire
Hydrant Robot Aselya and Adiana’s bond continued into the evening. I was feeding Xaden when Aselya came over
and asked to be held. Due to my
inability to hold her in that instant, I (jokingly) told her to ask Adiana to
hold her. Adiana said “okay”. They then hugged, Adiana tried to lift, and
they fell down. They giggled and got
back up for more. They did this over
and over again. All the while they
were giggling and having such a good time.
It was adorable and all I could think of is how they are going to
continue to make one another giggle hysterically for the rest of their
lives. They are so lucky to have one
another. |
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April 17, 2006 |
As the weather gets nicer, it is difficult to update as often. I apologize. We are spending lots of time outdoors and
we are LOVING it!
It is hard to convince the girls that they do not need to wear
boots. As you know, they really like
their boots. Adiana seems to be
adjusting. Aselya, on the other hand,
really wants to wear her coat and hat.
She is so used to getting all bundled up to go outdoors. It was sunny and warm today and Aselya was
out there in shorts and a warm sweater.
Silly girl. We bought the girls new sandals. Adiana’s look like this and Aselya’s look like this. Aselya is one of “those” people who wear socks with sandals. I haven’t been able to convince her that she doesn’t need socks. It is much like the aforementioned coat and hat. See a picture of this on the right. The word park may not be mentioned at our house unless we are willing
to up and go to one right then and there.
Aselya adores the park… especially the swings. Both girls can climb up the stairs to the
slide unassisted. Sometimes they slide
down, other times they climb back down the stairs—not an easy task. The girls are fascinated by animals.
Any type of animal will do.
Adiana is especially enamored with dogs. Aselya lately loves the squirrels. She chases them. She really thinks she’ll be able to catch
one. I am pretty sure that a) she
won’t and b) if she did, she would be deathly afraid. She is afraid, afraid, afraid
of petting zoos. Each time we’ve taken
her to one, she clings onto you for dear life. Every other child is feeding the friendly
goats and sheep. And Aselya is crying. She does enjoy the neighborhood dogs
though. Our next door neighbors have a
dog named And if one says something?
Doesn’t matter, the other needs your response as well. It makes you want to visit and have lots of
conversations, doesn’t it? Not only is Aselya terrified of petting zoos, her most recent fear is:
Trucks. Last week, the street cleaners
came by to clean the streets. They
came driving down our street and Aselya quickly jumped into my lap with a
look of terror across her face. She
did not want to get up. It took a good
45 minutes before she’d play on her own again. Next day?
The street cleaners decided to clean the street perpendicular to
ours. We are two houses in from the
corner which was close enough to scare the living daylights out of
Aselya. Once again, she became a
permanent fixture on my lap. On Thursday, we headed over to Frank, Jill, and Marissa’s for pizza
and our 2nd annual egg dye-ing
extravaganza. Remember… these girls
are 2. (Well, Marissa isn’t quite
2—that’ll happen in July.) They were
not sure what we were about to do.
Aselya tried to drink the dye because it was in such fun looking
cups. Adiana sat with Joel so she
hardly even got to touch the dye until we guilted
Joel from taking all the fun. All the
girls had messy hands, but they had a lot of fun and made lots of colorful
eggs. On Saturday night, we showed Aselya and Adiana how to leave their
baskets on the table for the Easter Bunny to come and bring them some
surprises. Aselya’s response? “No, Bunny.” Confusion.
Their baskets were waiting for them on the table when they woke up on
Easter morning. They got accessories
for their “My First Leap-pad”, bubbles, raisins, Dora fruit snacks, and
little chocolate bunnies. They were.
Ex. Cite. Ed. We went to church. Xaden did
not enjoy the service. He and I spent
lots of time bouncing around outside of the sanctuary. I missed it, but during the sermon
something about hell was mentioned and at the exact right moment, Aselya said
“Uh-Oh!” She’s already paying
attention to her grandpa’s sermons (or maybe just playing with toys in the
pew). We went over to Grandparent Gullicksons for Easter lunch. It was really nice and There is just one last thing to top off our wonderful Easter. The girls did not nap. We figured we’d just put them to bed
early. Let me be the one to tell
you. Our girls NEED their nap. They were Ca. Rab.
Bee. Crabby. Aselya cried about everything. And when I say everything? I mean Ever. Ree. Thing.
Eventually, we took them upstairs to settle them down and get them
ready for bed. Baths were not wanted. Crying ensued. And then what? Vomit.
Aselya’s body just gave out (and when I say “out”—I mean dinner and
all…). She isn’t sick. She was just worked up and tired and her
body could no longer control it. All is well today. Joel is back
at work (or hiding) and I am doing my best to organize our stuff for our
summer move. This post ended up being longer than I had planned… I have some pics to add on the side, but that will have to wait until
tomorrow. |
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April 14, 2006 |
I am lame. I typed up this post
and forgot to publish it: My little boy is becoming such a funny guy! When he is playful… he is soooo much fun. He
is the cutest, little grin that explodes across his face. It is hard to walk away from him when he
looks at you like that. His latest
achievement is that he tries to bring his head to an upright position when
lying down. Stomach crunches—his mom
should do some too. He is a strong
little bugger. One of Joel’s recent hobbies is building towers out of Duplos. He builds
one about once every couple weeks on average.
They are impressive looking towers and usually they are structurally
sound. Here is the thing: he has some
serious trouble picking up after himself.
The tower you see on the right took about one hour to build. It stood in the middle of our living room
for two days before Aselya destroyed it.
The accompanying Duplo mess (also pictured)
remained for 5 days. One of those 5
days just happened to be while Aselya was sick. About 1/3 of the Duplos
were vomited upon and thereby sanitized thoroughly. Those Duplos are
not included in the mess you see above so you can use your imaginations about
what it would look like had all the Duplos been on
the ground. I had decided that I was
not going to be the one to pick up the toys.
I think they would have remained there longer if Joel hadn’t wanted to
take pictures of our living room for a website he is working on. We do our best to teach the girls to pick
up after themselves, but sadly… they have Joel (and me—have you seen my
clothes?) as their role model(s). You are probably tired of me talking about the shoes for Frank and
Jill’s wedding. A decision and
purchase has been made. The votes were tallied and these
won 9 – 3. Joel voted for the losing
pair so when we were at Target, he said “Did these really get the most
votes?” Would I lie? To the Internet? Definitely not. Joel just has a difficult time losing. Feel free to console him. The girls tried the shoes on and there were no tears. Success!
Great job voters! I think they
are going to wear the shoes for Easter to break them in. Now do you want to see the dress they are
going to wear? |
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April 10, 2006 |
Our trip to Beaver Dam was successful!
We loaded up our new mini-van and hit the
road. Joel made me drive the entire
time because he was being Mr. Technology.
He brought along a laptop so the girls could be entertained by Elmo,
Dora, and Diego. Joel was entertained
by Lost and My Name is Earl. I was
entertained by the road and scenery as I was not even permitted the use of
the radio. Bitter? Not really. It was actually kind of relaxing. We arrived on Thursday afternoon and left for home Saturday
afternoon. It was really nice to spend
time with the Grahams! Catherine,
Aselya and Adiana played together nicely and had slumber parties in Catherine’s
room. They did a fabulous job! Xaden and Andrew were very interested in one
another but they are at very different stages developmentally (a 5 month
difference will do that). Andrew is
crawling all over the place and pulling himself up on furniture. Xaden is still only able to be held or lay
down on his back. He isn't even rolling
over yet. Andrew's favorite hobby
seems to be tossing a ball and then going to fetch it—easily entertained him
for an hour. He is such a great smiler. Our kids
have such similar routines and our parenting styles are compatible enough
that visiting one another doesn’t seem to throw the kids for much of a
loop. The girls loved, loved, loved
playing with Catherine and can’t wait to do it again! I love the way they say her name: “Cafrin”. Cassie and Joel paired up against Tyler and Elena for a game of
Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture. C and J
beat T and E by a long shot. At least
T and E can say they stole a piece of the pie from C and T! We have that much. Thanks for a great visit Graham family… we can’t wait for another
one! The pictures you see are (from
top to bottom): the girls playing Ring around the Rosies,
Adiana and Catherine (and Joel posing in the background), and Andrew (after
having pulled himself up onto the loveseat). |
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April 9, 2006 |
As you know because I’ve mentioned it several times: Joel turned 30 on
the fourth. Here is a picture of
Aselya enjoying his birthday cake! She
loved the frosting. Aselya is now able to count to 10 pretty flawlessly. Often times she starts with the number 2,
but is getting better about beginning with 1.
Her pronunciation of the numbers isn’t as clear as Adiana’s, but you
can definitely tell what she is saying. On Wednesday afternoon, it was gorgeous outside! It was about 60 degrees and sunny. We (and when I say we, I mean I) decided that
it would be a great day for a picnic.
We decided this about 4:30 pm and didn’t really have picnic type food
in the house so we decided to get some Chinese take-out and head over to my
favorite picnic spot at Our need for a picnic wasn’t squelched. We packed a picnic lunch for our road
trip. We stopped at a great park in |
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April 6, 2006 |
Here is a very short note to say that we are headed out of town for the
weekend. We are leaving this morning
for Beaver Dam, WI. I’ll give a real
update when we return! Have a super
weekend! |
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April 2, 2006 |
There are a few things that I adore about the kids lately and I just
want to write them down. None of them
really make for a “good story” but I don’t want to forget them…
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April 1, 2006 |
How lucky are we? Joel’s
parents took all three kids overnight.
Joel turns 30 (thirty!) on Tuesday so we celebrated with some friends
from work by having dinner at Koyi
Sushi and dessert at Pizza Luce. And here are some reasons I prefer St. Paul over Minneapolis: ·
There are 15 minute parking meters that continue to
allow you to feed them quarter after quarter after quarter without exceeding
15 minutes. But we didn’t do
that. And two people from our party
did not do that either. Really, they
didn’t. ·
The meters are kept on until 10:00 pm. Ummm? Really?
10 pm? Yes, really. And somebody… I’m not saying who… may have
a $34 parking ticket to prove it. And
the worst part? ·
Mapquest gets lost in |
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March 31, 2006 |
I thought Aselya was better (please note that I used the verb:
thought). On Wednesday, she seemed completely healthy. She was in great spirits and played and
laughed. Who wouldn’t think she was better? Just to be on the safe side, I only gave
her water to drink. She had chicken
noodle soup for lunch and some very “healthy” McDonald’s fries and nuggets
for dinner. And water. Only. Water. To. Drink. Thursday morning, she woke up and asked for cereal. What was I to do? She had shown that she could keep all of
her food down. I gave her some cereal
and milk. Mid-morning she asked for
milk. What was I to do? I gave her a glass of milk. Right before lunch, she had a yucky (and
when I say yucky it means we don’t want to talk about it-- or know about it
for that matter) diaper that necessitated a clothing change. I changed her clothes and she asked for a
glass of water. Water. Water is good. I gave her a glass of water and within 10
minutes… I got to see her breakfast-- All.
Over. The. Floor. Again. I frantically called my aunt Janet to ask for advice. Clear liquids. Liquid Jell-O. Do not let her get dehydrated. Thankfully, Aselya was begging… begging…
for water. She downed 2 eight-ounce
glasses of water. I tried to get her
to drink some Jell-O, but she was not interested. I convinced her it was medicine (she
completely and totally loves liquid Tylenol) and she would then “drink” the
Jell-O off a spoon. She kept it down and took a 3-hour nap. A 3-hour nap. (I can’t help but think of the theme to
Gilligan’s Island—are you with me?).
I have decided that it is the milk that is causing her to vomit and I
refuse to give her any milk (or any type of dairy for that matter) until she
has gone a minimum of 24 hours without “interesting” diapers or vomit. And then she will be better. |
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March 29, 2006 |
Some stats from yesterday Number of loads of
laundry: 5 Number of outfits
Aselya wore: 7 Number of times
Aselya vomited in kitchen: 6 Number of times
Aselya vomited in her room: 2 Number of times
Aselya vomited in our room: 2 Number of times
Aselya vomited in basement: 1 Number of times
Aselya vomited: 11 Number of times
Elena cried: 1 As you can
probably tell from the above stats, yesterday was not the greatest of
days. Aselya said “Good Morning,
Mommy” by vomiting all over her room… twice.
She was in great spirits and insisted upon eating breakfast. Oops.
Vomit all over the breakfast table.
Yet Aselya STILL wanted cereal.
And she ate it. Let’s just say
that was a mistake on my part. She wouldn’t
accept water. She wouldn’t accept Pedialyte. She
wouldn’t accept juice. She wouldn’t
accept 7Up. She only wanted milk. What is a mom to do? Let her daughter drink milk or not give her
anything? I wish I had done the
latter, but of course I gave her the milk.
Mistake. Clear liquids,
people. Clear liquids. No lunch. No dinner.
Some water. I finally learned
my lesson. Thankfully, her
disposition continued to be normal.
The vomiting didn’t really seem to faze her. By bedtime, she was very tired and
cuddly. Joel was the lucky one to reap
that benefit as I was keeping Xaden calm.
Aselya seems much better today.
She has only been given water and Jell-O. She asked for cereal, milk, and
bananas. I held my ground. No.
No. And No. I am going to try
some substance at lunch as it seems like her stomach is doing much better
today. On another topic: Xaden’s eyes. Sometimes you look at them and they are
still blue. Other times, they have
this brown tint right around the center.
Either way they are beautiful.
My dream is to have a blue-eyed, dark-haired baby. I don’t think it is going to happen. We’re pretty much convinced his eyes are
going to be brown. Guess we’ll have to
try again. :) Current vote
count: 3 – 5,
respectively. Keep
‘em coming. Thanks to Frank,
Jill, the other Jill, Shane, Joel (should that count?), Janet, Ann, and
Kellie for your votes (and blog faithfulness). |
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March 27, 2006 |
There really
isn’t much to say about our weekend.
For the most part, we stayed home.
The girls have runny noses and coughs.
Adiana has been especially cuddly.
Aselya continues to have a good disposition; you just have to watch
her nose. Xaden didn’t have
such a great Saturday. He ate at 7 am
and threw it all up (on me, no less).
About 9 am, he was really cranky and Joel said “you know his stomach
is empty” so I fed him again. He threw
it all up (on me again, of course). In
these two instances, I’m not talking spit up; I’m talking projectile vomit of
large proportion. I fed him again
around 11:30 am and this time he mostly kept it down, but spit up a bit. At 1:30 pm, he ate a tiny bit and kept it
down. And then he wouldn’t eat
anything until 7:00 pm. He would just
scream when I tried to nurse him.
Around 5:00 pm, I got him to eat about ½ ounces of Pedialyte,
but he spit it up. I let him sleep for
awhile and at 7:00 pm when I tried to feed him, he was doing the screaming
thing. I finally just squeezed milk
into his screaming mouth and he realized he wanted it. And he ate.
He ate again before going to bed and then a couple of times in the
night. So, he is on the mend. He’s eating normally again, which eases my
stress. I was quite concerned. He is still stuffed up, but he seems like
that is getting better too. I’m
looking forward to him being healthy again. Did I tell you
about the shoes we bought for the girls to wear at Frank and Jill’s upcoming wedding?
The look like this. The girls do not like them. They do not like the strap going between
their toes. They cry. This morning, Adiana was willing to wear
them with socks, but not for very long.
Aselya still didn’t want to have anything to do with them. We may have to find a different pair. Joel is glad that the girls have no
interest in wearing uncomfortable shoes because it only leads to sore arches
and foot damage in the future. Vote for which
ones you think they should get: these
or these? Send your votes to elena
at gullickson dot us I’ll even post
the results and you can see how few people read the blog. Tee-hee. |
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March 24, 2006 |
We’ve all had
this virus. All of us. Joel brought it home. I got it.
Then Xaden. Then Adi. Now Aselya.
Aselya’s symptoms seem to be the most minimal (oxymoron?). But goodness gracious… we would like to be
healthy. Aselya has not
been a big fan of the new mini-van. On
Wednesday, I brought her out there to take a look at it. I opened the rear sliding door and she got
this panic stricken look of terror on her face and vigorously shook her head
“no”. I brought her into the back to
try to get her excited about it. I let
her push the button that opens and closes the door. No go. She did not like it. Not one little bit. Yesterday, Joel put all the car seats into
the van and was going to drive it from the front of the house to the garage. I thought it would be good to let Aselya go
for a ride in it in an attempt to help get rid of
some of her fear. She put her shoes,
coat, and hat on and out they went.
They arrived at the van and Aselya said “No. No new car.
Inside. Mommy.” She wanted nothing to do with the van. Nothing. We decided to run
a couple of errands (does Dairy Queen count as an errand?) so that everyone
could experience the new van. We pile
(and with 5 people that is the most appropriate verb) into the garage, Aselya
takes one look at the van and tries to turn around and run for dear life. Unfortunately for her, I was standing there
with Xaden in his seat so I maneuvered it in such a way that she could not
run out of the garage. There were some
tears, but we managed to get her into her seat and in the end… she liked it. She’ll now say yes when asked, “Do you like
the new car?”.
Admittedly, I rather enjoyed the “No.
No new car.” In some ways,
sick kids can be easier to take care for.
Not the runny nose or whiny disposition parts. Last night, Aselya, Adiana and I were all
brushing our teeth to get ready for bed.
They both finished before me. I
took their toothbrushes, rinsed them and put them away all while continuing
to brush my teeth. I finished and
looked for the girls and they had—Put. Themselves. To. Bed. I’m not kidding. Their room was dark and both girls were lying
in their beds, holding Lamby and Maggie, and going to sleep. Joel and I went in to pray with them and
give them their goodnight cuddles and kisses.
And off they went… They are very set
in their routine. Don’t mess with
it. |
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March 22, 2006 |
Xaden is 3 months
old today! Wow. I can hardly believe it. He went to the doctor this morning for a
follow up from our experience Monday night . He is doing well. His fever is down and he definitely has a
virus. It could be RSV or some other
virus of which I can’t remember the name.
He is wheezing this morning and to see if that could be helped, we put
an albuterol (spelling?) nebulizer
on him for 5 minutes. It didn’t help,
but thankfully his disposition is so great that there isn’t any concern and
he will more than likely just get over it.
We have been instructed to: nurse often (check), humidify the air
(check), and watch his temp (check).
She said it could take about 10 days before all the symptoms are
gone. Poor little guy. Aselya continues
to seem well. Adiana definitely has a
cold. I’ve been instructed to “hydrate
like crazy” and watch for fevers. Sickness… go away! In other news, we
have entered the land of mini-van ownership.
We had to. As much as I ADORE
our Ford Escape (ignore that it needs a bath), it isn’t practical with 3 car
seats in the back. There is absolutely
no wiggle room and when you have three kids in diapers you need space for all
the junk you have to lug around. One
stop at a store and you’re out of space.
This should also make it easier for the girls to climb into their own
seats thus making it easier on whoever is driving them from one destination
to another. It is a 2005
pre-owned Dodge Grand Caravan. It is
Magnesium in color and can be seen on the right. We’re excited about our new vehicle yet sad
to say goodbye to the Escape. It was a good
Escape… |
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March 21, 2006 |
Ask me how we
spent Aselya’s birthday. Go ahead ask
me. “How did you
spend Aselya’s birthday?” Since you asked… We went over to
Frank, Jill, and Marissa’s for dinner.
They are getting married in May and over the weekend there had been a
bridal shower for Jill. She received
lots of fun gifts including both a quesadilla maker and blender. So the dinner menu consisted of quesadillas
and margaritas. And were they ever
good. They also made a pan of brownies
with candy letters that spelled out “Happy Birthday Aselya” and two
candles. Marissa and Adiana helped to
blow out the candles. I think Frank
may have helped a bit too. Aselya had
an added bonus birthday celebration.
And then… As you may
recall, Xaden currently has his second cold.
He took an extra long nap—he fell asleep in the car on the way to
Frank and Jill’s and slept through dinner and dessert. When he woke, he was extremely warm. We took an underarm temp of 101.1 so I
called the nurse line. An underarm
temp wasn’t good enough for her and she asked me to take a rectal temp. I didn’t want to go there, but I did and
his rectal temp was 102.7. A little
freaked out was I. We were asked to
bring him in to Urgent Care. We gave him
a dose of Tylenol before heading out the door. Aselya and Adiana
stayed with Frank, Jill, and Marissa.
They had a wonderful time watching Shrek and
getting to sleep on an air mattress.
But I digress, we (Joel and I) arrived at urgent care and his new
rectal temp was 102.1 and he was all smiles.
If he hadn’t been so warm, you would never have known he was sick. His disposition was so great and he was
absolutely adorable. Due to his young
age, the doctor wanted to: do an influenza test, check for a bladder
infection by taking a urine sample and doing a culture, getting a chest x-ray
due to his cough, and a blood test if the influenza test was negative. An influenza test
is done by shoving a syringe of saline solution into the nose and then
sucking it back out. Xaden did not
enjoy this. I mean, c’mon now, would
you? Next a couple of nurses taped a
sterile bag onto his penis to try to collect a urine sample (if he didn’t go
in the bag, we’d have to get the sample with a catheter). We went to radiology to get the chest
x-ray. Ever seen an infant get a chest
x-ray? It is quite unpleasant. So… there was this clear plastic (maybe)
vest that he had to be positioned into.
He basically sat on this little saddle type thing and I had to help
pull his arms up so that he was “reaching for the sky” and then the plastic
vest thing was snapped closed. The
poor little guy was so upset and just screaming. Two films were taken: a front view and a
side view. I just wanted to run and
grab him to give him comfort because he was so sad. We went back into
the doctor’s office to be told that the influenza test came back negative. This is a good thing; however it meant that
he’d have to get a blood test in order to try to rule out some type of
infection. We took him to the lab and
watched as the lab tech tried to determine which arm would give a better
draw. Ugh. Again, we just had to watch (and hold) as
our poor little baby boy screamed. The preliminary
blood tests indicate that he more than likely has a viral infection. We are not at all surprised by this since
his symptoms mimic what I had last week, but as I said due to his age the
doctor wanted to be extra cautious. We
arrived at the clinic about 8:30 p.m. and left at 11:00 p.m. We were there for 2.5 hours! Xaden was completely knocked out between
all the tests, Tylenol, playing, nursing, and crying he had done. The urine culture
test will come back today and a blood culture is also going to be done. We are supposed to follow up with our own
doctor today. My guess is: plenty of
fluids, rest, and keep his temp down.
I would be terribly sad and guilt laden if there were something wrong
with him so I think we’ll err on the side of caution. So… ummm… yeah… Happy Birthday Aselya! How’s that for a fun celebration? |
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March 20, 2006 * Happy Birthday Aselya! |
I’ve been absent for a week. Let
me tell you why: Sickness! Much
sickness. Oh, boy… was I feeling
it? Headache, sore throat, coughing,
sneezing, runny nose, fever, eye pressure, and earache. Yes… woe is I. I’m feeling much better. Certainly not
100%, but well enough that the kiddos are no longer spending the majority of
the day in front of the television.
Yes… I let them watch all the Dora, Diego, Elmo and Barney they asked
for and maybe even some they didn’t ask for.
I had to, I could barely get myself out of bed to change their
diapers, get them dressed and feed them meals. You know those sick days your employer
gives you? Yeah… no. I don’t get those. Suffer through it baby. Joel was so, so, so helpful when he got
home from work. I don’t deserve
him. Really, I don’t. Potty training? What is
that? No, really… what is that? We’ve regressed. I should say… I’ve regressed. I basically took the week off. I mean, how was I going to make sure they
used the potty when it was questionable as to whether or nor I could get myself
to the potty? Perhaps that is a slight
exaggeration, but I think you get my point.
We did make some strides over the weekend. We had decided that we would not pressure
Adiana to use the potty as she sometimes gets upset about it, but we do know
some signs for when she has to go caca. So… on Saturday night, she was walking
around on her tiptoes. Joel took his
book and Adiana to the bathroom and there they sat until she went caca. She
succeeded and earned herself a cookie.
She was quite pleased. This
morning, Aselya is back on track and has used the potty a few times. We’ll get there, but obviously NOT before
Aselya’s second birthday because: She. Is. Two. Today. Can you even believe it? Two
years ago. Two years ago that precious
little angel was born. Two years ago,
I was so excited about earning a shamrock shake and they were no more. Fear not, I had TWO this season. TWO!
In honor of Aselya’s second birthday, or something like that. We had a small gathering of family over on Saturday for lunch, cake,
ice cream and presents. It was a good
time. Aselya loved having a
birthday—she really seemed to understand that the party was for her. Aunt Janet helped us to purchase a kitchen
for Aselya. The girls LOVE it. It looks like this. Aselya’s latest fascination is balloon popping. Oh, I laughed. And I laughed some more. She accidentally popped one and thought it
was funny and tried to pop another. I told her she had to sit on it. She sat on a balloon and bounced up and
down, up and down. It took some time
and then… POP! The look of both shock
and excitement on her face were beyond words.
She did this twice and then moved on.
Loved it. So far, Aselya has managed to avoid the sickness, but Adiana and Xaden
are not so lucky. Adiana has a cough
and a runny nose. Xaden has his second
cold. I know I said this before, but
do you know how sad it is to listen to a tiny baby with a runny nose? So. Sad.
I just want to hold him and love him.
I do and then I have to tend to the needs of my other two “babies” who
like to be held and loved too. It’s
all good. I think we’ll all be healthy
by the end of the week. |
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March 13, 2006 |
So… there was an amazing blizzard last night. It snowed and snowed and snowed. And guess what?! My husband had to go to work. They did not cancel school in As promised, here are the notes provided by Jill
from the babysitting extravaganza from Thursday evening: stories from tonight...
it went FABULOUSLY! |
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March 12, 2006 |
Thursday night we had four awesome students (Alison, Jill, Sarah, and Yibai) baby sit our three kids. The girls had a marvelous time—though they
managed to work their charm so that they didn’t have to go to bed. Tee-hee. I will include notes from one of the sitters upon permission…. Big news at our house!!! I am a
big believer in swaddling a newborn baby.
I have read that it helps them to sleep longer because it mimics the
womb. So, I have swaddled him every
night since I’ve brought him home. And
every night, he gets himself loose and starts to flail his arms. There is a special blanket called a miracle
blanket, but I did not want to spend the $26.95 on a blanket!!! So I read about a little trick online where
you place an additional blanket inside the swaddling blanket to hold the
baby’s arms at the side to prevent the “flailing of the arms” for FREE! I tried it for the first time on Thursday
night. And guess what happened???? Xaden.
Slept. Through. The. Night. I put him down about 10:30 pm on Thursday night and he awoke at 8:18
am on Friday morning. I freaked out a bit
around 4 am and again at 5 am and again at 6 am. By 7 am not only was I freaking out, but I
had to get up and pump due to the complete overwhelming engorgement problem I
was having. The girls woke up and
started playing and such and THEN Xaden finally woke up. I couldn’t believe it. I put him down about 10 pm on Friday night and he awoke at 5:17 am on
Saturday morning. He nursed and fell
back to sleep until 7:30 am. I put him down about 9:30 on Saturday night
and he awoke at 5:00 am on Sunday morning—nursed and fell back to sleep until
7:37 am. He wakes up cooing and
smiling—too adorable! Tonight he went
down at 9:00 and we’ll see if the streak lasts! One more thing! My awesome
cousin, Tina, asked me to be her personal attendant for her wedding in
2008! I am so excited about it—it’ll
be a lot of fun. Tina is such an
amazing girl, we adore her at our house, and I feel so lucky to get to
participate in her special day. |
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March 9, 2006 |
There is a new friend in our house.
Dora the Explorer. Aselya is
obsessed with her. She walks around
all day “Dowa. Dowa. Dowa.”
I try to limit tv intake so we usually watch
one episode in the morning and one later in the afternoon. She gets upset when I turn off the tv. Yesterday, she
literally sat in front of the blank tv thinking
that I would come and turn it on for her.
She gave in and came to play Duplos. Adiana: “Play blocks?” Aselya: (nods) “Blocks” Adiana: “Okay.” Adiana, on the other hand, loves Diego. Often times they “fight” over which show to
watch. Adiana: “Diego!” Aselya: “Dowa!” Adiana: “Diego first.” Aselya: “Dowa first.” Diego and Dora are cousins and are sometimes both in an episode. When the girls are “fighting” over whether to watch Dora or Diego, I
try to choose one that features both of the characters. There is one particular episode about
spectacled bears (Ever heard a two year old say ‘spectacled’? Again… funny stuff.) where
Dora and Diego help the bears find their way back to the cloud forest. Unfortunately, Boots (Dora’s pal monkey)
isn’t in the episode so Aselya got mad yesterday because she couldn’t find
Boots. Elmo has taken the back burner in their lives. Now I understand how Woody must have felt
when Buzz Lightyear took his place as number 1 toy
in “Toystory”. One more thing… You know how when Aselya wakes up in the morning one of her first
questions is: “Where daddy go?” Well, my answer is always “Daddy went to
work.” The past few days she responds
with “No. Daddy hide.” Joel likes to play hide-n-seek with the
girls. Apparently, he is REALLY good
at hiding! |
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March 8, 2006 |
What do I both dread and love?
Naptime. It is so nice to have
a break for a while in the afternoon, but Aselya… well, she is a stubborn
one! She used to adore going to sleep
and would walk in the room with a smile on her face, crawl into bed, and bam…
asleep in seconds. Lately, she has
been throwing hysterical fits. She
starts hitting and kicking and saying “no” to everything. “No blanket. No Lamby.
No sleep. No piwwow. No
mommy. No nap.” I have to literally hold her in place to
calm her down. I try to console her,
but really… it just takes a bit of time.
Usually, she calms down a bit, gets a hug and then decides it is time
for sleep. This process can take a
half hour or more. I try so hard to
stay calm, but it is hard when Xaden is crying in the other room. I’m hoping this little “game” of hers
doesn’t last too long. Adiana seems to be getting a little better about he whole potty training
thing. She tells us when she has to go
“caca pants” or when she is “farting”. Have you ever heard a two year old say
“farting”? It is funny. Overall, I am not convinced that she understands
when her body is going pee-pee because the few times she has pee-peed in the
potty, she seems very surprised, yet excited because we are so happy for
her. We’ll see how it goes. As you know, Aselya will soon be 2.
I have been working with the girls on saying how old they
are. If you ask them how old they are,
Aselya holds up all five fingers and says “Two. Aselya’s two.” Adiana holds up her pointer
finger and says “Adi’s one.” It’s
cute. After some prompting, we can
convince Adiana that she is two and she holds up all five fingers too. I think she likes to be one because she
understands basic number sense and she can make her hand hold up a one, but
she hasn’t figured out how to make her hand hold up a two yet. Mystery solved. I found the
missing puzzle pieces. Thank goodness
because I was going insane. They were
under the cushion of the glider rocker.
They were positioned in such a way that when you sat on the rocker,
you could NOT tell they were there. I
had looked under the couch cushions and the wingback chair cushion, but never
thought to look under that particular cushion. I’m just glad they are back so that I can
start living my normal life again. How
do detectives do it? Not knowing
answers seriously drives me insane. If
you’ve ever struggled on a math problem that gets into your head and stews
around in there causing a lack of sleep or coherent thoughts in other areas,
you know what I mean. Sadly, this is what the missing puzzle pieces did for me. I would literally think about places I
could check or spots the girls like to play.
And I kept going back to: they recycled them or they threw them
away. Deep breath. Okay, better now. |
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March 3, 2006 |
There are not very many things that can be described as sweeter than
the sound of a baby’s squeal of delight!
Xaden lets out these squeals that just make my heart melt. Also he smiles at me and lets out these
tiny little coos of laughter that are so sweet. It is so much fun to have a tiny baby
around again… Aselya’s blood work came back from the lab. There isn’t anything wrong with her; the
bruising is just toddler fun I guess.
I’m thankful… There is a mystery to be solved at the Gullickson house: What happened
to the animal puzzle pieces? We have a
puzzle with about 8 animal pieces.
When you place the pieces in the correct spot, you get to hear the
sound that particular animal makes.
Well… 7 of the 8 animals are MIA.
I have NO IDEA where they are.
I fear they may have been treated like garbage and found their way
into a garbage can. Aselya recently
discovered that when you push the grey button on the trash can, the lid pops
open and she has taken to throwing lots of things away. |
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March 2, 2006 |
Xaden is 10 weeks old today and for my reward he slept until 4:00
a.m.!!! Woo-hoo. He went down about 9:30 p.m. This is his longest stretch yet. He is getting there. The doctor actually said it is “too early”
for him to sleep through the night.
Aselya did it at 12 weeks and never stopped and I am sure there are
lots of babies who sleep through the night this young (I did and NEVER
stopped, it is a good thing that kids make such good alarm clocks because it
is incredibly difficult for to wake me once I’m asleep). Joel: Can babies talk? Aselya: Nooooo. Joel: Can babies walk? Aselya: Nooooo. Joel: Can babies count? Aselya: Nooooo. Joel: Can you talk? Aselya: Yes. Joel: Can you walk? Aselya: Yes. Joel: Can you count? Aselya: 2, 3, 9, … Joel: Is Adi a baby? Aselya: Noooooo. Joel: Is Xaden a baby? Aselya: Noooooo. Joel: Are you a baby? Aselya: (vigorously nodding) Aselya baby. Aselya, daddy’s baby! |
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March 1, 2006 |
Aselya woke up in the middle of the night. It seemed as though she thought she was waking
up from a nap because when Joel opened up the door to check on her, she came
strolling out “Where mommy go?”, “Adi
sleeping”, “Where baby go?”. Those are
generally things she says upon first waking up to begin some type of
activity. Joel tried to let her know
that is was still time for sleeping.
Aselya did not like the sound of that and began to cry. Joel tried to console her, but there was
not much consoling because she had her mind made up. She was NOT going back to sleep. We let her lay in her bed. She
was screaming. “MaaaMaaa,
MaaaMaaa, MaaaMaaa.” She didn’t get a response so she resorted
to “Daaaaaddddy, Daaaaddddy,
Daaaadddddy.” Again, no response. Well who always comes to the rescue? No, not Diego. “GraaaaaaMaaaa, GraaaaaMaaaa, GraaaaaaMaaaa.” Surprisingly, Grandma didn’t respond
either. A few minutes after that, she
was back to sleep and by morning she had forgotten the whole thing. Aselya sure loves her grandparents! Frank, Jill, and Marissa came over to help out with kids and have
dinner with us. It was, of course, a
good time! Jill and Frank are big
American Idol fans so we watched that on the big screen while the girls
played with toys. Marissa was having a
good time throwing beanie babies around.
Jill asked her to stop. She did
it again (c’mon… who wouldn’t? Tee-hee). She was told
to stop again. She did it once more
this time saying “Adi” in an accusatory tone.
She wanted Jill to believe that Marissa had not thrown it, but Adi
had. Jill got up and very sternly told
Marissa that “We do not throw toys!”, the rest of us
chuckled at how at 19 months Marissa has already learned to lay blame on
somebody else. |
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February 28, 2006 |
It’s Fat Tuesday! The people in
Xaden had his 2 month check-up today.
He weighed in at … drumroll please… 13 lbs,
3.5 ounces (75th percentile)!!!
Can you even believe my little guy is getting so big? I was guesstimating that he would weigh
about 12 pounds. Wow! He is 23.5 inches long (50th
percentile). He is almost at 2
feet! When I was told how long he is,
I thought “wow, some people have babies that long at birth”. I asked about the frequency of his BMs (for
those of you looking for an update) and was told that frequency doesn’t
matter as much as the literal consistency.
I was able to describe his well enough that there is nothing to worry
about. He also had to get his first set of immunizations. I was much braver this time than when I had
to first take Aselya for hers. I
almost cried myself then. This time, I
knew what to expect. I was “hugging”
him down on the table and shushing into his ear (he loves the sound of ssshhhh…. ssshhhh….sssshhhh). The
first shot went in and his face turned BRIGHT red and he cried. He had two more to go. Yikes.
He calmed down rather quickly afterward and then fell asleep. Aselya had her 2 year check-up at the same time. I’ve noticed that her skin has been
bruising easily these days so her platelets are being checked, but more than
likely nothing will come of it. She
weighs in at 28 lbs, 2.25 oz (75th percentile) and is 34 inches
long (65th percentile). It
seems like she hasn’t grown too much in the past 6 months. I should look back at her 18 month stats. We went up to the lab to get Aselya’s blood drawn. She was a superstar! There were no tears, just lots of interest
in what was being done to her. She got
two stickers and some cool band-aids.
Oh, yea… did I mention that I braved this trip all by myself with all
three kids? Well, I did. All three kids were very well behaved and
listened well. The scary parts were
only to and from the clinic and being in the parking lot with the kids. On our way in, a very friendly woman helped
by holding Aselya’s hand. A nice
random act of kindness. A nice (that was a sarcastic description) child inside the clinic
whispered quite loudly to her mother “that lady has a lot of kids!” Her mother whispered something back, but I
didn’t quite hear it. I thought the
perspective of that young girl was funny (not ha, ha funny, but interesting
funny) because her mother had 2 kids.
I suppose adding one more (and so young) is “a lot”. |
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February 27, 2006 |
I can’t even believe that I forgot to tell this story yesterday. We attended |
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February 26, 2006 |
Happy Weekend! We were
fortunate to get to go out to dinner with Sharon and Jim on Friday
night. We went to my favorite Mexican
restaurant, El Bravo. The next
morning, Aselya has decided that she is “mommy’s baby” or “daddy’s baby”. She wants to be carried and coddled like
Xaden. Sometimes she even wants Xaden
to be ignored so that she can be held and loved. We try to give her the attention she needs,
but not so much that she is a whiny brat which, believe it or not, she can
be. One of the many things I enjoy
about her “being a baby” is how she wants to use all of Xaden’s toys. Adiana wants to as well. In the pictures, you can see all the toys they
are “using”. Last night, Adiana pooped in the bathtub. You would have thought there was a shark
attacking her! She screamed very
loudly… “Caca!
Caca!
Scared. Adi scared!” She was going insane. We keep telling her that caca goes in the potty, but she doesn’t seem to want to
take us up on it. She hid behind some
curtains earlier in the day to take care of it. Aselya is still doing a great job on the potty chair. She can sometimes wear 1 Pull-up for the
entire day! Her 2nd birthday
is March 20th. I am hoping
she can be trained by then. It may be
wishful thinking, but I think she can definitely be trained by summer. |
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February 23, 2006 |
Our apologies for our absence the past few days. Our server was down. It is now back up and running, but it will
take a few more days to get the pictures up and running. Patience, you’ll have to just wait. They’ll be worth it. Aselya and Adiana usually play together pretty well. Sometimes, however, we have to remind them
to ‘be nice’. It seems that we have
been using that phrase more and more.
Yesterday, Adiana dropped a book and it landed on my shoulder. I happened to be sitting within a foot of
Xaden so the book could have hit Xaden on his head. I said in a very stern voice to Adiana “You
need to be careful. It hurts when you
drop books on people. You almost hit Xaden. Be careful.” Her response? With her pointer finger in the air, “Nice! One last thing: What is going
on tonight? 8:04 p.m. – Aselya and Adiana
go to bed 8:07 p.m. – Aselya and Adiana are fast asleep 8:41 p.m. – Xaden gets put into his crib 8:43 p.m. – Xaden is fast asleep It doesn’t get much better than that folks! |
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February 22, 2006 |
Kristen gave us a book titled “No,
David” by David Shannon when we were at Carleton. The girls love it! They love to tell him “no” and “sit” and
“naughty” and “diaper!” and “not in house” and “go to sleep”. It is cute.
Adiana is already a little miss bossy pants so this book helps to
channel her bossiness. Aselya is a big fan of the word: duwanna
which translates to ‘do not want to’.
She says such things as: “No, I duwanna cut”
or “I duwanna book”. Does that first one count as a 7-word
sentence? Xaden is two months old today and to celebrate he has been adorable
all day! He is really trying to focus on
objects and then he just looks cross eyed.
This is typical for an 8 week old baby, but due to my horrible vision,
there is always concern in my little head.
Sadly, Xaden didn’t sleep as well last night as he did the night
before. He went down around 9:00
p.m. Woke up at 12:30 a.m. to
eat. And woke up again at 4:00 a.m. to
eat. He goes right back to sleep so I
am NOT complaining. I know that some
people have it much more difficult than this. |
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February 21, 2006 |
Xaden rocked my world last night!
First, he put himself to sleep (with a little swaddling help) about
9:30 p.m. And then he slept until 2:50
a.m. This is his longest stretch
yet! I looked at the clock, blinked
and clapped my hands. Hopefully, he’ll
continue this trend! Aselya had her
first through-the-night sleep at 8 weeks old.
So he isn’t too far behind! I’m a bit concerned about Xaden’s BMs.
He tends to only have one a day lately. And today it was a doozy. Joel saw me cleaning it up and said “Was he
even wearing a diaper?” It seems like
he should be taking care of business more than once a day. I’ll ask his doctor about it next week. |
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February 20, 2006 |
Happy Presidents Day!!! I am very
thankful for the dead presidents because Joel was given a day off, which in
turn gave me a day off! Joel stayed
home with Aselya and Adiana so that Xaden and I could take a trip down to
Carleton. It was a beautiful, sunny day!
The drive was peaceful. We
visited Kristen… she’s the greatest!
She made delicious caramel rolls and everything! We spent some time with Deanna and Stephen
(where I remembered I had my camera to document our trip) and one last visit
to Cathy. I meant to take Xaden’s
first photo by the Carleton sign, but forgot.
Oh well, there is plenty of time for that before his enrollment in
2022. J |
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February 18, 2006 |
Despite the late night, Aselya and Adiana were up at their normal 7:30
a.m. wake time. Lucky us! Aselya was a bit out of sorts for most of
the day. She has taken to being very whiny
and wants to be with me a lot! She
says “Aselya baby” thinking that I can then completely ignore a crying Xaden
to hold her and tend to her AT ALL TIMES!
Her shift back into “babyhood” is nice when Xaden is sleeping and she
and I can have one-on-one time, but it is very stressful when he is awake and
needs my attention. Aselya enjoys
using Xaden’s carseat and vibrating chair. Sometimes, she really thinks she is a baby. Aselya has a stuffed bear named Percy.
She has had a bit of trouble pronouncing his name. She kept calling him “Ploppers”
and I found it adorable. I noticed
today that she can now pronounce “Percy”.
I wonder when Libby will be “Libby” rather than “Baby” and Lamby will
be “Lamby” rather than “mommy”. We are working with Adiana on being able to recognize all the letters
in her name. A D I A N A. She can do all of them consistently except
the N. Sometimes she says N and
sometimes she says F or G or whatever letter she
feels like for that time. Once she
recognizes all of them, we’ll teach her the spelling—rote of course, she’s
not THAT smart… yet! |
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February 17, 2006 |
It’s Friday! Yay! We had a busy day… Aselya, Adiana, Xaden,
and I headed over to the Monson’s in the morning. Aselya, Adiana, and Kameron
played together. A
and A have such a good time playing there—Kam
is a hoot and there are so many different toys and books. Joel and I were invited to Joel’s long time friend’s (Joel Metz)
wedding. We had a great time. Joel was able to catch up with some old
friends from 4-H and from his time working at Inver Wood Golf Course. And I was able to put faces to names. At the wedding we were reminded that it
really is a small world… Sharon and Jim agreed to watch all three of our munchkins while we
attended the wedding. Liz and Mark
(Joel’s sister and her husband) were visiting from |
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February 15, 2006 |
Again I have to marvel at the ability of young children and their
acquisition of knowledge. On Joel’s back,
just beneath his shoulder blade, he has a raised strawberry mole. This mole is visible when he wears an
A-shirt. Adiana and Aselya were
sitting on his back getting horsey rides when one
of them noticed it. Out of curiosity,
one of them touched it. Aselya kissed
it (don’t ask why because I couldn’t tell you). Joel said to me, “they found my mole.” Adiana repeated “mole”. We acknowledged it and told her that it was
a “mole”. Not very interesting yet… I
know. Today I was sitting with the girls reading “The Cat in the Hat” for
the bazillionth time when Adiana pointed at a small
mark above my eyebrow and said “mole”.
Indeed, I have a mole there (it looks a bit different from Joel’s for
two reasons: 1) it is not raised and 2) it is not strawberry). I moved my face a bit and said “Are there
more?” She found another on my
cheek. To me, this was an amazing
connection for her to draw especially because she had just learned “mole” the
night before. Adiana has two of her very own moles.
One is very near her belly button and one is on her chest. She can see the first one if she lifts up
her shirt. The other one is harder to
find. If you ask her if she has a mole
or where her mole is, she will lift up her shirt and show you. Aselya has one on her arm, very near her
shoulder, but it is hard for her to see it herself. Adiana knows where it is though and will
move the collar of Aselya’s shirt to try and show where it is. WARNING: Nostalgia ahead. You may want to stop reading this entry
now. You’ve been warned. A year ago, I was SO excited because I was going to Hello! My 15 minutes of fame was much more like 1 second of fame. If you were to blink; you would have missed it. The story is like this. I wasn't feeling very well on Wednesday when I left and when I woke up on Thursday morning, I felt even worse. I could hardly get out of bed. I almost sent Lindsay and Sarah to see ellen without me. They convinced me to go. After standing out in the rain for an hour or so; we went into the studio. The pre-show was really fun; though a bit of a daze as I was on Day Quil like nobody's business. The actual show was really fun. The guests were: Ray Romano, Nicole Richie, and Jesse McCartney. They were awesome and funny and ellen totally rocked. I was way pumped up after the show.I woke up on Friday morning and could hardly get out of bed... again. I declared that I must go see a doctor. We went to an urgent care facility where I had a 102.3 degree fever and was diagnosed with bronchitis. It was a bit insane for me to have been waiting in the rain for an hour, but it was really fun and well worth it.The show aired on Monday and during the end credits; you could see a brief glimpse of me (if you knew I was wearing pick and that I was sitting near the DJ booth). If you watched and didn't notice me; it is not a surprise as it was a VERY BRIEF glimpse. My technically minded husband captured the screen shot and though it is a blur; you can see me in pink in the second picture. It is
interesting and nostalgic for me because that trip marked the end of Aselya’s
nursing (she was 11 months old). And
now I am nursing a new baby (and Aselya could care less). I remember the emotional roller coaster I
was on about being finished with the whole breastfeeding “thing” (It’s just
too bad I forgot to bring one of the pieces for my breast pump on the
trip. It would have been nice to make
myself, shall we say, a little more comfortable. I’m going to stop now as we are entering
the So now I have
to work on getting back to the ellen degeneres show when I actually feel well. I mean I barely ventured out of the hotel
room so I didn’t even see any of the sights.
And I really want to walk on the “Walk of Fame”—we did see it from the
car, but that just isn’t the same. And
I guess we did see the inside of about five pharmacies as we attempted to
cover up my ailments, find the missing piece for my breast pump, pick up our
prescriptions, and get goods to take with us to stand in line. It’s just that I’m not so sure that
qualifies as sight-seeing. Did you make it
all the way to the end of this entry?
I’m impressed. I’ll try not to
do that to you again… okay, at least not very often. |
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February
14, 2006 |
Happy
Valentines Day! To share in the
festivities, we all dressed in red today!
And what an
afternoon it was:
By the time
Joel called on his way home (at 6:30 p.m.), I was at my wits end. You could just hear the kindness in his
voice as he said “Happy Valentines Day” and asked about dinner. I tried to be okay. I did.
But he could tell. He asked the
question, “Are you okay?” And that was
it. I started crying and said “These
kids are driving me nuts today.” He
said he’d hurry home. The girls
immediately noticed the tears. Adiana
with a lot of concern in her sweet little voice asked “What happened?” And I
said “I just need a hug.” She and
Aselya both crawled into my lap (Xaden let me put him in the swing for a
short time) and hugged me. Aselya said “Mommy crying.” They were really sweet and it made me feel
better. I guess I know what to do the
next time they are acting like irrational fools: Cry, Cry, Cry.
They were then
very nice girls for the rest of the evening.
They played hide and seek with Joel.
It took them about 10 laps around the main floor before they found him
hiding behind a curtain. They were
having so much fun. Of course, bedtime
was a breeze as Aselya was exhausted after all the running, playing, and lack
of a nap. Xaden slept from about 8:30 p.m. to 1:45 a.m. He ate and went back to sleep until 5-ish
a.m. Ate and slept again. It made up for the night before… |
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February
12, 2006 |
Xaden was baptized today! It was a great service. Joel sang “Open the Eyes of My Heart
Lord”. It was beautiful. Xaden wore the baptism outfit that his
cousins Samuel and Jacob wore for their baptisms. It is really special that they have all
been able to wear the same one. Eric
and Kathy Gullickson and Frank and Jill Contreras (Bergeman)
are Xaden’s sponsors. His Great
Grandma Bernice Strand crocheted him a baptism blanket and he used it today
to keep warm. Thanks to everyone who
attended and for all of your thoughtfulness.
We are truly blessed to have such great friends and family. On a different note, I have to share this
Adiana story. We were sitting on the
couch. She was holding a triangle and
Maggie (her stuffed cow friend). She
had this conversation with Maggie: “Sides?”
“Count.” “One. Two. Three.
Triangle three sides.” Perhaps it helps that she lives with Math
Geeks, but it is pretty amazing for her to re-enact that concept with
Maggie. |
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February
11, 2006 |
We took all three kids to Como Zoo today. We are so lucky to live so close to such a
nice zoo. We were able to see a lot of
animals including: monkeys, pumas, lions, tigers, gorillas, orangutans,
zebras, giraffes, tigers, bison, and polar bears. They especially liked the pumas and lions because
we were able to get very close up views of them. Their was a very
large gorilla lying next to the glass and they looked at it for a long time
too. Xaden was snuggled in his little
front pack carrier and seemed to like the outing as well. |
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February
10, 2006 |
A conversation between Aselya and Adiana: Adiana:
“Say sorry.” Aselya:
“Sorry.” Adiana:
“Thanks.” |
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February
9, 2006 |
Adiana’s new phrase is… “huh?” She says it
like 15 times a day. Elena:
“Adiana, would you like some milk?” Adiana: “Huh?” Elena:
“Adiana, want to play toys?” Adiana: “Huh?” Elena:
“Adiana, ready for a bath?” Adiana: “Huh?” Either I say “huh” too much myself or she
has the Hanson “I can’t hear a thing” gene. Adiana can recognize the following letters
and numbers: A, B, F, G, I, L, W, 1, 5 Aselya has her own interesting way of
counting: “3, 9, 13, yay!” She counts everything in that order and she
seldom forgets the yay at the end. It’s cute.
The girls received new pillows in the mail
from their Great Aunt Joyce. They love
them! At naptime, Aselya was so excited
about using her new pillow that she fell asleep in about 2 minutes. At bedtime, however, she was less of a
champ. She was talking instead of
sleeping so we took it away from her.
She was so cute crying out “piwwow. Piwwow, mommy, piwwow, daddy, piwwow.” Her cries didn’t earn her pillow back and
she eventually fell asleep. |
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February
7, 2006 |
I have this bad habit of letting laundry
pile up until it is completely out of control. I have made it my goal to do laundry once a
week. I have done laundry for the past
three Tuesdays. And can you believe
that I wash SEVEN loads? That’s a lot
of laundry—a load a day. If I were
actually leaving the house every day it would probably be more. Currently I can wear my jeans about four
days before throwing them into the wash unless Xaden decides to spit up or
his pee-pee gets out of control. Kellie and Gavin came over today to see
the girls and meet Xaden. It was a
nice treat as we don’t get to see them very often. As I gave Xaden a bath tonight, the girls
were standing next to his tub watching.
They like to do this daily.
Every now and again, Xaden pees once I get him in the water. Tonight was one of those nights. Aselya and Adiana were in fair range and
Adiana got it right in the face. I,
being the overly sensitive person that I am, laughed very hard before I could
help her get the pee off her face. I’m
sure that I’ll get it next. |
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February
6, 2006 |
Allow me to step away from stories about the
kids for just a moment and talk about… um… ME. I must admit my latest obsessions:
Thanks for letting me share these. Feel free to share your obsessions with
me. There shall be no judging
involved. |
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February
5, 2006 |
The entire family went on an
adventure. The kids and I don’t get
out much so our big excitement for today: the grocery store and Target. Woo-hoo! We put the girls into one of those carts
that have a truck/car attached to the front of it. They love it! Or should I say ‘they love it for the first
10 minutes’ because after that tempers start to flare. They started to fight and Aselya had to
move into the regular cart seat. Prior
to getting there, she received a nice long scratch down the side of her cheek
from Adiana. I trimmed Adi’s nails
when we returned home as no child should be allowed to use her hands as such
a weapon. Joel told me a story when we got home
about how he isn’t so used to controlling carts with big cars on the front of
it. He crashed into an end cap and it
made a loud bang. I missed it as I had
Xaden in his own cart and we were off getting produce and meat while they
were off getting cereal and dairy. It sounds like way too much excitement for
you, doesn’t it? |
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February
4, 2006 |
We had a nice candlelit dinner last night
with Jim and Sharon. This was not our
intention. We were about to put dinner
on the table and the electricity went off.
It was very dark! Adiana could
have cared less. She continued to play
and walk around in circles. I must
have bumped into her at least 10 times as I was trying to make a mad dash for
the headlamp and candles. Aselya was a
bit less mobile but was not at all fearful of the situation. I think they must have done a lot of
sneaking out of their beds in the darkness so this incident did not phase them in the least. This morning we awoke to the sound of an
incredible THUD. I wasn’t at all sure
what it was and to be honest… it didn’t wake me up as I am the heaviest
sleeper in the whole world. It woke
Joel and he said “Didn’t you hear the bed break?” I thought he was nuts, but said “Grab the
camera… it’s going to make a great picture”.
Joel (without heeding my advice) entered the room and both girls were
sitting on Aselya’s bed which had collapsed onto the ground. All they would let out of their mouths was
“Broken. Broken. What happened?” Joel rescued them and came back to me and
said “That would have made a really good picture.” When will he start listening to me? |
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February
2, 2006 |
Xaden is all smiles! It’s cute.
He is especially smiley in the morning and he sure likes to smile at
the girls. In our living room, we have a wingback
chair. Adiana pointed to one of the
sides of the chair and said “Ear”.
Joel looked at her as if she were crazy and said “What kind of
ear?” Her response: “Elephant. Elephant ear.” She is right… it does look something like
an elephant’s ear. If only we could
have the eyes of a child… |
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January
31, 2006 |
Xaden is beginning to smile! Today he was all smiles as the girls were
talking to him. I will do my best to
get it on film! Additionally, he has
found his hands. About three days ago,
I caught him with his fist in his mouth.
Yesterday, he had his pointer in his mouth. Yay! On a slightly different note, Xaden
decided to poop while his diaper was off today! What a mess. It was all over his onesie,
socks, outfit, and changing pad. He
even managed to get a bit on my jeans.
Little stinker—literally. Lamby, Aselya, and Adiana all had
makeovers today! Unfortunately, the
“make-up” came in the form of an orange sharpie! They get into mischief so quickly. I was trying to do laundry (from the
aforementioned episode) and the sharpie was located at the top of the
basement stairs (usually behind a closed door). All three of them had orange streaks all
over their faces. I feared for Lamby,
but thanks to some bleach and spray and wash, she is all clean. Aselya and Adiana appeared proud of their
accomplishment as they hailed “color, color, color” when I came upon
them. I am just glad I reached them
before they discovered the nearby walls. |
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January
30, 2006 |
The weekend went by very quickly! We had a great one with lots of family
activity and visitors. On Friday
night, we went out to dinner at a great Thai restaurant on University Avenue
with the Gullicksons (Grandpa Jim, Grandma Sharon, Great Grandma Bernice,
Uncle Eric, Aunt Kathy, Cousins Sarah and Jacob, and the five of us). It went very well considering all the kids
and the type of food served. Aselya
loved the spring rolls—just like her daddy. On Saturday afternoon, Frank, Jill and
Marissa came over for lunch and a bit of playtime. The girls love playing with Marissa! That evening, Joel and I went out to dinner
and to see a movie ( We headed to church on Sunday
morning. At one point during the
service, the girls “escaped” from the pew and went running and giggling down
the aisle. Most congregants were
amused so it was okay… we then gave them a pile of stickers (much to Joel’s
dismay) to play with and they were entertained for the remainder of the service. The girls and Joel then headed down to
Dennison to go to Sarah Gullickson’s fourth birthday party! They were excited to go to a party and to
bring Sarah a present. They had a fantastic
time. When they returned, Sarah Wilmot
(college friend who currently resides in Today went pretty well. The girls were well behaved and played
together nicely. My cousin Tina came
for a visit in the early afternoon (our new Monday ritual). The girls went down for their nap while
Tina was here and when they woke up, she was gone. Aselya came out of her room, looked for
Tina, and said “Where’s Tina?” It appears as though we have to let Aselya
know that the visitors will be gone when she wakes up because she seems to
expect them to be here when she wakes up.
:) |
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January
27, 2006 |
Adiana is so great at language
acquisition. Lately she has been
singing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” on her own. She is very good at it. She can also sing much of the alphabet
completely on her own. She will
spontaneously burst into song. Aselya
sings some of the words of songs, but has not yet mastered an entire song by
herself. Aselya used the potty tonight before (and
after) her bath. She is always so
proud of herself when she does a good job.
She said “Potty. Pee-pee. Yay, Aselya!” And she clapped for herself. |
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January
26, 2006 *Yay! Today is ellen’s b-day! Happy Birthday! |
It is amazing what can happen in 5
minutes! The girls were playing very
nicely in the living room and Xaden was asleep upstairs. Xaden awoke so I went to care for him and
left the girls to play. When I came
downstairs about 5 minutes later, Aselya had Lamby all set up to eat. It was very, very cute. Lamby was buckled into a booster seat and
wearing a bib. The girls have access to
our picnic ware so Aselya had gotten Lamby her very own plate, glass, fork,
knife and spoon. On the plate were
pieces of Joel’s bread he had proudly baked for his skiers (they were coming
over for dinner before their section meet).
Aselya was adorable as she stood there feeding Lamby the bread—what a
wonderful caretaker! You can see how
proud she is of herself in the picture (also note that she is wearing the
sweater specially made for her by MJ Pittman). I quickly made another bread loaf so that
Joel wouldn’t be too upset or discouraged and the skiers would have plenty of
nourishment. Speaking of the skiers, the girls had a great time with them. Aselya took one look at Pheng Her pointed and said “Diego” (Dora the Explorer’s cartoon cousin). Pheng bears some resemblance to Diego aside from him being Hmong and Diego being Latino. I think he earned himself a new nickname. Adiana played catch with some of them while they tried to watch “The Animatrix”. Aselya did not want Jeff DiMartino to use any of her books as a writing surface and kept taking the books from him. Adiana and Aselya both liked the Jell-O jigglers brought by the Moua’s. They watched it jiggle in their bowls and thought it was so funny. We listened to Karen Wickert play some great music on the piano. The girls tried to outperform her with their own renditions of classical music.
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This picture is of some of the
skiers. Pheng (aka Diego) is holding Adiana. |
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January
25, 2006 |
This morning Adiana decided that she
wanted to dress herself. She put both
legs into one pant leg of her pants and then said “Stuck. It’s stuck.” I wish I had grabbed the camera because
she looked like a mermaid. We had a successful outing today! Wahoo.
We headed over to the Monson’s to play with Kameron
and chat with Debbie. The girls played
with Play-Doh (it was their first time and did very
well, they didn’t even try to eat it) and colored with markers on paper. They sure liked the markers. Adiana colored her lips and mouth blue. Aselya turned her white turtleneck into a
multi-colored one. They may need a bit
more practice coloring with markers… |
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January
24, 2006 |
Both girls love books and can be
entertained by them for a very long time.
We have recently discovered that Adiana can “read”. Truthfully, she just remembers the words that
were said when somebody else read the book.
The two books she has been reading recently are “The Cat in the Hat”
and “Hop on Pop”. My favorite part
when reading “The Cat in the Hat” is the page where ‘Sally and I’ are sitting
by the window because all they ‘could do was to sit sit
sit sit and they did not
like it, not one little bit’. When Adi
gets to that page, she says “sit, sit sit” and then
turns the page. I find it
adorable. She reads “Hop on Pop”
(another Dr. Seuss favorite) and she says “hop on pop… stop hop on pop”. It is very interesting because “Hop on Pop”
was one of Melissa’s (Adiana’s mom) favorite books as a little girl. Another too good to pass up Adiana story
happened at lunch today. We had turkey
tetrazzini and mixed veggies. Both girls loved the tetrazzini
and asked for seconds. Aselya ate
seconds of her veggies as well. When
Aselya finished, I let her have a cookie.
Adiana wanted one too, but I asked her to eat her veggies first. She didn’t want to, but she REALLY wanted a
cookie so she began to eat them. I
started to clean up the kitchen as Adiana was working on her veggies. I looked over and I caught her sliding the
veggies from her plate onto the table.
She peaked up at me to be sure that I wasn’t watching. Unfortunately for her, I was. I went and put the veggies back on her
plate and asked her if she was going to eat them. She said “no”. I said “okay”. She asked for a cookie. I told her “no”. She then ate all of her veggies and earned
herself a cookie. I can’t believe that
at two years old, she would have thought of a “trick” for getting out of
eating something. Kids are so smart!!! |
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January
23, 2006 |
Today Aselya woke up and said her usual
“Morning”! She now has two questions that
immediately follow: “Where’s Daddy?”
‘He’s at work’ “Where’s Baby?”
‘He’s sleeping’. She is then
ready for the day. It’s too cute. She is very excited about having Xaden
around. When I go to change his
diaper, she gets very excited!
“Watch. Watch.” I allow her to come and watch. We dry his bottom with a hair dryer to help
prevent diaper rash and I always give her a little blast of the warm air too. I haven’t decided if she actually enjoys
watching the diaper changes or if she likes getting blasted. My cousin Tina came over today. Aselya and Adiana were excited to have her
come over. Prior to her arrival, they
were practicing saying her name… “Hi, Tina”
“Tina”. Upon her actual
arrival, Aselya went mute (a normal occurrence for her when visitors arrive)
and Adiana did not want to share her newly acquired phrase. I was talking to Xaden tonight. I said, “hi, baby” and “wassup
baby” and Adiana mimicked me. It was
really funny. We put a little groove
into the “wassup baby”. She made me laugh out loud. It was very cute. While on the topic of funny things the
kids say… Aselya can’t really pronounce L’s when they are the first letter in
the word. So… when she calls for her
stuffed animals Libby and Lamby, they sound like Baby and Mommy. It is difficult to distinguish to what she
is referring. Adiana likes to call a train that we have
a truck. The only problem is that her tr sound comes out as an f sound. You put it together. We want to laugh because it sounds very
clearly like the f-bomb, but do not want to discourage her development of
language. |
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January
22, 2006 |
Xaden is one month old today! The time has gone by very quickly this
month. Joel goes back to work
tomorrow. It will be my first “official”
day at home with all three kids. Joel
has been coaching Nordic skiing so he has been gone in the afternoons—my
trial runs, ha! We’ll see how the
morning “rush” goes. Today was quite a day! We decided we needed to get OUT of the
house. We were going to go play at
Caribou Coffee—a treat for the girls and for the parents! The morning was suddenly gone and it became
time for lunch. We changed our plan
and decided to go to McDonalds for a quick lunch and then head over to Great
Grandma Hanson’s house for a little visit.
Lunch went okay—the girls preferred our cheeseburgers over their
nuggets. When it was time to leave,
Aselya lost it. She wouldn’t
walk. She screamed. I took Xaden and Adiana out to the car and
left Joel with Aselya. He finally got
her to hold his hand and she walked out of the restaurant. This “episode” solidified my not wanting to
take all three kids anywhere in public by myself. If one of them loses it, I am at a complete
loss myself! “Hey, stranger… can you
help me out here?” I’d rather not… If that wasn’t enough, we get Aselya
calmed down. We dropped Joel off at
home and then Aselya, Adiana, Xaden, and I headed over to Grandma’s house as
planned. On the car ride, we were
entertaining one another. Adiana
counted to 14 perfectly (she’s a counting professional!) and we sang a few
songs. I asked them: “Do you want to
see Grandma? ‘Okay’ Do you want to see Freida (grandma’s cat)? ‘Okay’ Do you want to see Aunt Janet?
‘Okay’” We
arrive. I take Aselya and Xaden
out. Adiana FREAKS out. I don’t know why, but she completely lost
it. She did not want to get out of the
car. I took her inside and she refused
to get her coat and hat taken off. She
just plopped down on her tummy to wait the visit out. Eventually, she fell asleep. I still don’t know why she fell apart, but
I think it was because she was tired. That was enough excitement to last me
another week or so… Now, Joel’s job
will be to remind me of our fun time when I want to take them on another
adventure. Where does this stubbornness
come from anyway? Elena? Joel?
You be the judge. |
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January
20, 2006 |
Marissa came over to play with the girls
today! It was fun. They enjoy playing with her and seeing
their Uncle Frank. At different times,
I asked the girls if they wanted Marissa to come over and play. Adiana said “Okay. Frank?”
Aselya nodded and said “Frank?”
Do you think they like him? During their visit, Xaden had his first poopie blowout! I
am in the midst of changing him and cleaning him up (he had it on his back
and all) when much to my dismay, he decided to give me a urine “shower”. This is the worst one yet. He got my jeans and the sweatshirt I was wearing. I put my pajamas back on. I couldn’t stand the idea of first choosing
another outfit and second getting another outfit dirty. My pajamas are much more comfortable
anyway! Xaden’s cold is much better! We are very glad as it was so sad to hear
him breathing so heavily. Potty update: Aselya usually pees on the potty two to
three times each day! It is great. My
favorite thing is when she has to go #2, she sits there and tries to go and
when nothing happens she says “It’s stuck”.
Too cute. She tries to go, but
usually her #2s are still in her diapers. Adiana is a bit less interested in potty
training, but today, she peed on the potty!
She received lots of praise and clapping. Her face lit up. Hopefully, she’ll take more of an interest
in using it as so far she has been a bit reluctant about it. |
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January
19, 2006 |
We had a small amount of sleep last
night. I went to bed about 11:30
(Xaden just finished eating) and he went back to sleep in his bassinet. About an hour later, Joel comes in wearing
his headlamp in an attempt to not wake me.
As an aside, I am such a heavy sleeper; I can’t imagine he would have
woken me by turning on a light. He
proceeds to look at sleeping Elena. Of
course, I wake up because there is a bright light shining directly at
me. He apologizes and then notices
Xaden’s heavy breathing. He decides to
use the bulb syringe to help him. It
was a nice gesture. However, it
stirred Xaden awake and then Joel could not calm him down. Mom came to the rescue… again. I calmed him and we went to sleep. Xaden woke up about 2.5 hours later; and
again around 6:30 am. When I was up
with him at the 6:30 awakening, I heard the pattering of little feet coming
from Aselya and Adiana’s room. They
normally sleep until 8 or 8:30 in the morning. I went in to check on
them. I opened the door and they both
exclaimed their usual, “MORNING!” Oh
no! Due to the extreme fatigue from
all the awakenings from the night, I told them that it was not “morning” and
they should go back to sleep. They
did. They then slept until 9:45
am. Amazing! Xaden’s cold is in full force today. We keep using the bulb syringe to make him
more comfortable. He cries a bit, but
mostly seems grateful that we’re helping to rid him of the discomfort. Xaden is starting to use his hands. He holds on to things for a while. It is very cute! To prevent urine “showers”, I place a cloth
diaper on him during his diaper changes.
Lately, he has been grabbing the diaper and pulling it away. Thankfully, we haven’t had any “showers”
due to this. |
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January
18, 2006 |
Xaden has his first cold. L
This makes me sad because his breathing is very heavy and he doesn’t
seem as interested in eating. I am a
bit worried, but will just watch him.
It is no surprise that he would have a cold because Aselya decided to
give him a kiss on his face yesterday.
One would think “Oh, how cute”… in this case it wasn’t, as Aselya had mocos running out of her nose. She is fighting her own cold. Adiana ate amazingly at lunch today. We had ravioli, cheesy bread and mixed
veggies. She literally devoured the
ravioli. It was so funny to
watch. She had pasta sauce all over
her hands, face, and clothes. She
wanted more and more. We stopped after
the third helping as we didn’t want her to throw it up. |
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January
17, 2006 |
Aselya sat on the potty chair for a long
time today. She really had to go #2
and she tried very hard. A small terd came out and she just couldn’t get the rest. We were proud of what she had done. Less than 10 minutes later, her diaper was
full. It must still be more
comfortable to let it out that way… Adiana came back home today. The girls seemed very happy to see one
another. They immediately went
upstairs and played the “putting our friends to bed” game. They like to put their stuffed animals under
the covers and shut the door. We have
a huge fear that they are going to slam their fingers in the door so we
always put a blanket on the top of the door to prevent it from closing. This mostly makes them mad, but they tend
to calm down after a while. Xaden can follow objects with his
eyes. I placed a toy bumblebee in his
line of vision and watched as his eyes followed it. His vision will only get better from here. Tonight, Joel and I decided that we would take
a “night off” and view a movie together (The Constant Gardener). We put the girls down and they seemed to be
staying in their beds. We went down to
the basement and watched the movie.
When the movie ended, we went back upstairs to check on the girls. Both of their beds had been moved toward
the middle of the room. Adiana was
sleeping in her bed and Aselya was sleeping on the floor right behind the
door. We are very curious to know what
exactly was going on in the room. I
guess we’ll never know… |
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January
16, 2006 |
We’ve been working on colors with the
girls. In some ways, they appeared to
be quite lost and unable to grasp the whole concept of colors and/or
sorting. Today, Aselya and I were
playing with Duplo blocks and I started to sort
them by color. Aselya took over! She knew exactly what she was doing. She was really good about the color ‘blue’
and knowing which blocks were blue.
She lined up the blocks according to their proper color. At bath time, we decided to do the same
thing with the letter/ number set of toys.
Again, she was able to sort by color and this time she seemed to
prefer the ‘purple’ ones. Joel, Aselya, Xaden and I went to Rosedale
Mall today. We just wanted to go on a
little adventure. Aselya can sure be a
pill when she gets taken out in public.
She throws little tantrums. Our
normal discipline routine is to give time outs where they sit until they are
ready to be “nice”. Usually, Aselya
screams during her time outs. Thus, it
is not very effective to use in public as it would make the situation worse
for us as parents. We calmed her down
and she seemed to enjoy her stroll through the mall and Joel and I enjoyed
our Caribou Coffee treats. Xaden
wasn’t really a fan of the outing at all.
He is still a bit young. |
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January
15, 2006 |
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January
14, 2006 |
Aselya is
still doing well at using the potty chair.
She doesn’t use it all the time… not even close. When presented with an opportunity to use
the potty, she generally takes it. She
is so cute. She sits on it and
pees. Then she turns and looks at it
and says “Yay, Aselya” and claps her hands.
Hmmm… do you think she has gotten a bit of praise thus far? Today she appeared to be trying to go
#2. She was struggling, looked up and
said “It’s stuck”. Yes… it is. Try to push. She tried and was unsuccessful. |
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January
13, 2006 |
Xaden attended his first book club. The book was “Blind Your Ponies” by Stanley
Gordon West. It is about a struggling basketball
team from a small town in |
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January
12, 2006 |
The girls have a new game—they learned it
from watching Joel. They sit at the
piano and say a noun of some sort. We
say to them: “Okay, sing a song about (insert noun here)” and they do. Aselya’s songs are always the same
“grandpa, grandpa, grandpa” or “Adi, Adi, Adi” where Adiana has been getting
a bit more creative. You can hear her
sing “horse blah blah blah
neigh blah blah horse blah blah
blah”.
Adiana makes up songs all the time.
It is just difficult to understand the lyrics. |
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January
11, 2006 |
Xaden
has a new outfit from Sarah and Shyeilla that has a
picture of a dog on it... he's worn it twice
now. :) Aselya and Adiana like that outfit |
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January
7, 2006 |
Xaden, Aselya, and Adiana spent the
afternoon at Grandma and Grandpa Gullicksons.
This was Xaden’s first time being babysat. He was a very good boy. He drank 3 ounces of breast milk from a
bottle and did a fantastic job. |
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January
5, 2006 |
Today I took Xaden (2 week well baby
visit) and Adiana (2 year well baby visit) to see Dr. Kovarik. She is our pediatrician and we think she is
AWESOME! Xaden was alert and aware. I had questions about his breathing and the
yellow that I could see on the roof of his mouth. His breathing is normal and I should not
worry. The yellow in his mouth is
leftover from his jaundice, but there is no need to worry as he is eating,
gaining weight, and pooping very well.
When discharged from the hospital, he weighted 6 pounds, 6
ounces. Today, he was 7 pounds, 9.5
ounces. That’s awesome! He is a great and efficient eater. He is now 20 inches long. He has grown almost an inch! Adiana is 20 lbs 14 ounces. She’s gained almost a pound in the last two
months. She is just a tiny little
thing. At one point, there was concern
about speech delay and that is no longer a concern as she is quite the talker
these days. She is able to count to 10
perfectly. She is working on the
alphabet. Mostly she dances to it, and
interjects a letter here and there.
She is very smart. She had to
get three shots today. And then she
had to get her finger poked in order to do a lead test. She cried for the three shots, but calmed
down rather quickly. She was a
superstar during the poking of the finger.
She didn’t even wince. Good
girl. |
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January
4, 2006 |
Aselya is totally potty
training herself! She has gone pee in the potty
quite intentionally three times in the past two days. Just now, I went to check on her and she
said "caca". She started in her pants. I took her diaper off and she went and sat
on the potty. I asked her if she was
done. She said no. I let her be for a couple of minutes and
she finished the job in the potty chair!!!
She is so smart. I think she totally gets what she is doing
and we honestly haven't even been pushing very hard. We just have the girls sit on there before
bath time-- sometimes they pee, sometimes they don't. |
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January
1 – 3, 2006 |
We were blessed with a visit from the
Graham Family (Cassie, Tyler, Catherine and Andrew). It was a full house around here but we had
a great time! Aselya, Catherine and Adiana
played together very nicely. Aselya
would not share her lamby but it was okay because
Catherine brought her own lamby (same name,
different look). Catherine taught
Adiana how to say bird in sign language.
Since then Adiana and Aselya have learned a few other words (milk,
please, more, yes, Jesus, loves, me, bible). It was so nice to be able to exchange
parenting stories and to lend support to one another. We are very grateful for their friendship! Joel and Tyler were afraid to compete
against Elena and Cassie on any games so we played the “dictionary” game
where we were all on our very own team.
Sadly, we didn’t take a group photo… next
time for sure! The picture is of the
three girls. Pictured from left to
right: Catherine Renee, Aselya Susan, and Adiana Elena This picture is of Cassie (holding Andrew
Joseph) and Laura Bright (another college friend) |
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December
27, 2005 |
Lisa
and Desiree sent Aselya and Adiana some Christmas gifts. I wish that I had videotaped the opening of
the gifts because it was the greatest and craziest thing you could have ever
seen. They both opened up their clothes first and liked them, but
not enough to distract them from opening their next gift. Adiana
tore open her book and went nuts. She was so excited and turned
the pages very quickly. She
knew every animal in there except the hippo and kangaroo (incidentally-- what
is the difference between a kangaroo and a wallaby?). She got so animated about each page and was
practically jumping for joy.
It is now her favorite book and calls it
"puppy" due to the puppy on the cover. The
crazy part is that not more than 2 seconds later,
Aselya got this look on her face and started walking in a strange circle and
then threw up all over the carpet. She got a bit on her new
outfit, cried a bit, and then was completely fine. Her disposition
turned to normal and all was well. Nuts. |
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December
24, 2005 |
Our
Christmas Gift has arrived!!! On
Thursday, December 22nd at 10:22 am, Xaden James Gullickson (a
baby boy) entered the world! He’s
a cute one weighing in at 6 lbs, 14 oz and is 19 inches long. |
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Christmas
2005 |
Hello, again… it’s me Aselya
Gullickson! I have had a very eventful 2005
and thought I’d share some of the highlights with you! First, I acquired my very own
passport! I needed it to go to In July, my cousin Adiana (she
just turned 2) moved in with us. We
have so much fun together! We both
love Elmo, singing, and dancing. One
of our favorite songs is one that my daddy wrote about cheese and bananas –
which happen to be my favorite foods! We had a lot of fun this summer
at I am going to be a big sister
any day now! I don’t know if I am going
to have a brother or sister but it will be fun no matter what! We will share the good news with you when
we can, but you can try to stay updated by visiting www.gullickson.us . Also see pictures of me at www.aselya.net (my dad says he will keep it
better updated this year!). Some more great news for our
family is that my mommy is going to stay at home with all of us kids. We’re all excited to get to play, play, play all day! I hope this Love and Smiles, Aselya
Gullickson |
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October
31, 2005 |
It’s
been a long while since I’ve sent an Aselya update… it is certainly not due
to a lack of available updates. Aselya
is now a year and a half old. She has great motor skills and is
learning to communicate. She attempts many words. Some of our
favorites are: ·
“Marissa” which sounds more like “sellsa” ·
“Elbow” which sounds like “bo-bo” ·
“Adi” ·
“Baby” ·
“uh-oh” ·
“Grandpa” and “Grandma” She
is great at recognizing animals and can make sounds for cows, ducks, lions, cats,
dogs, owls, pigs, and my personal favorite- monkeys. She immediately
goes “aaah, aaah, aaah, aaah” when she sees a
monkey. It’s cute. She is also very good at identifying her body
parts. She seems to enjoy identifying her feet most. Sometimes she
points to her big tummy and says “baby” – I’ll take the responsibility for
that one. Of
course, Aselya is anxiously awaiting (okay, so maybe she isn’t as anxious as
her parents) the arrival of a new sibling. Our second baby is due at
the end of December. Aselya enjoys seeing babies and saying
“baby”. We’ll see how she feels once more of her territory is overtaken
by yet another attention seeker. Another, you ask? In the middle
of July Aselya’s cousin Adiana (who is almost 2) moved in with us.
Aselya and Adiana are great friends and have so much fun playing (and causing
trouble) together. We are not sure how long Adiana will be with us, but
she has certainly been a fun addition to our family. Happy
Halloween! Happy Fall! |
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May
1, 2005 |
Two days ago, I took a pregnancy
test. My heart skipped a beat when I saw
2 lines indicating I was pregnant! The
excitement was overwhelming! The first
person I told was Aselya. I don’t
think she really understood when I said “you’re going to be a big
sister.” She appeared happy—probably
because I was so happy. Aselya and I then headed to the bookstore
where Aselya picked out the book “I’m a Big Sister” to give to daddy. We drove to find daddy at a track
meet. We brought him some Taco Bell for
dinner and left Aselya’s new book in the bag.
When he pulled out the book, a smile crept across his face because he
realized what he was being told. I’m feeling good so far—there is just a
tiny something lurking in my tummy.
It’s a good sign because I know baby #2 is growing and developing. |
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March
13, 2005 |
It has been a couple of months and we know
some of you have been anxiously awaiting the Aselya update! Wait no more; www.aselya.net has a new look and some
great new features! You can read Aselya’s first book, see updated
pictures, and view her one year video (it is about 6 minutes long and may
take a while to download)! Fellow math
geeks, notice the 180 degree rotational symmetry of Aselya’s name in the
center of her home page. :-) Aselya is going to be 1!!! Her birthday is one week from today and she
very excited to get her hands on some birthday cake. She started walking about a month ago and
loves it! We have a much harder time
keeping her “contained” as she wants to RUN, RUN, RUN! She is very friendly and enjoys walking up
to strangers to say hello. Last
weekend we had a sneak peek at spring/summer (it was close to 70 degrees
out!) and Aselya very much enjoyed it.
She went walking around the neighborhood and even visited her favorite
swing. She loves dogs and cats and
visited with a few of them along the way as well. The year has gone by quickly and we are
very excited for the next year will bring. |
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January
15, 2005 |
It’s very cold outside. Aselya wears snow pants under her coat; it renders
her practically immobile (Ever seen “A Christmas Story”?). She is a good sport though. When she is in her car seat, she just
stares off into space. With some
prompting, she smiles. It’s cute. |
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January
9, 2005 |
Aselya is 9 months olds. One of my favorite things lately is how she
wants to cuddle when she first wakes up.
It’s great because even when she is napping, I can’t help but miss her
activity and smile. It’s almost like
she’s telling me: “I miss you too”! |
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January
2005 |
9 Month Update: Happy New Year! Aselya turned 9 months on December 20! In celebration, her website has taken on a new look! You will need sound to truly experience its wonder. It is now a bit harder to locate the pics link and video link. If you move your mouse slowly across the keyboard, a pics window will pop up or a video window will pop up and there is one more new window. What happened over the past month (I’ll pretend that I am writing this on December 20th and that Christmas has not yet come as her Christmas pics will be up next month)? She has TWO teeth. She can now stand alone, but has not yet taken any steps without the comfort of furniture or steady hands. She loves to climb stairs and eat socks; entertaining her is quite easy. We hope all is well for you and that the New Year brings great things! The Gullicksons |
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Christmas
2004 |
Hola! Allow me to introduce myself:
I’m Aselya Susan Gullickson! You may
not have ever met me, but I am sure you have seen my picture because there are
so many of them on my website: www.aselya.net My parents asked me not to, but
I decided to write to you and tell you about my life. It is so much fun! I crawl around and get into anything that
looks entertaining. I especially enjoy
the plants that are all around the house.
The dirt tastes so good. I know
because I tried it when my mom wasn’t looking. She caught me because there was evidence
all over my face. I go to daycare 5 days a week
while mommy and daddy work at the high school. They keep telling me that when
I get bigger, I am going to know a lot about numbers. I don’t know what they are talking
about. I just smile at them; that
seems to do the trick. They really
love my smile and when I really want to get on their good side, I laugh. You should see how they react! I have them wrapped around my little
finger. My mommy took me to I hope you enjoy the holiday
season! I know I will… there are so
many pretty lights to look at. My mom
and Dad send their love. Abrazos y besos,
xoxo, Aselya Gullickson |
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November
24, 2004 |
8 Month Update:
Aselya is on the go. She is completely crazy and wants to get into... EVERYTHING! Her favorites are: plants, paper, and water! She is working on standing. Today she stood for about 5 seconds on her own.
Check out her updated web page: www.aselya.net
Recent pictures include: her Halloween outing with her cousin Marissa, a birthday party with some of my high school friends where she saw her first clown... and LOVED it (Can you believe it? Most are afraid of clowns.), and a visit to Grandparent Gullicksons where she played with her cousins, Sarah and Jacob.
This month's "video of the month" is best viewed with sound because you can hear her laughing. She is too much fun!!!
Have a wonderful Turkey Day! We are thankful for... YOU! Love, The Gullicksons |
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October
24, 2004 |
7 Month Update: I think I just sent
an Email about Aselya's growth and such, but believe it or not... she's a
month older! And... SHE'S
CRAWLING!!! We can hardly believe it. She's been on the verge for
about 2 weeks and this weekend she completely mastered it. We have been
on our toes getting everything "crawl safe". You can
see one of her first crawls in the 'video of the month' on her website: www.aselya.net Of course, there are
more pictures of her as if there weren't already an overabundance. She is a great
reader! She talks to her books, turns pages, and grabs at the
pictures. It's a lot of fun! Yay. She has also taken to
singing! She sings at church with the congregation. She sings
when she plays with her toy piano. She sings when Joel plays the piano
or guitar! We may have another musician in the family; we'll have to
see... We finally added
pictures from the trip Aselya and I (and some college friends) took to Happy leaves falling
from trees! |
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October
2, 2004 |
6 Month Update: We are a little behind in updating Aselya's website. She turned 6 months on September 20. There are new pics AND a "Video of the Month" to replace the Crib/ Yard Cam. This month's video is actually 2 months old as it is a video of one of her first tries at eating cereal. Too fun.
She has been in daycare for a little over a month now. She gets a big smile on her face and grabs for Joanne (daycare provider) in the morning because she likes her so much. That big smile returns when we pick her up. :)
She is becoming more and more coordinated each day. She pulls herself up on her exersaucer, LeapFrog toy, couch, bathtub, basically anything she can get her hands on. She appears ready to crawl. She gets on all fours and rocks. And she has now taught herself to go from lying down to sitting. She's a lot of fun and we are having a great time! |
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May
2, 2004 |
Take a look at Aselya's smile:www.aselya.netShe's having so much FUN!
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March
20, 2004 |
Aselya Susan
Gullickson is born! 12:20 p.m. 7 pounds 6 ounces 19.75 inches |
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November
12, 2003 |
Is it going to be a boy or a girl?
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