Bath Giggles

Fun at the Park

These are from last weekend. I had hoped it would be warm enough to lay Dean on the grass and get some photos of him, but it was a bit too windy. So I took photos of my other favorite subject.

Dean is cooing more and more each day. Yesterday he smiled at me! Melts your heart~ I love it!


She was pretty overjoyed that we were letting her drink soda. It was the only way to get her to sit still.

" How are you doing with two kiddos?"

My good friend Joz asks me this question in an email. I get this asked by several people and so I copied what I wrote back to her...just so you could see a sample of what my days are like. I am soooo thankful for my babies and know they are a gift from the Lord!


"with 2 kids i am def busy. makes the days go by fast, for sure.it is challenging a lot of the time. it is my temptation to become anxious and to think that i don't have control over a situation. i have to with each scenario think to myself,..okay what is most important right now?

for example, just an hour ago here is what happened.... dean woke up hungry. er is hungry too. so i feed dean on one side while i give er a piece of cornbread to snack on while watching cartoons. i forget that cornbread is crumbly and remember this when i look down to see crumbs around her. oh well, at least she is entertained and happy. I will pick up the crumbs later..or maybe tommorrow. dean makes a pretty loud diaper. er is still hungry and whining for a snack. i decide then to change dean first cause if i lay him down to give er lunch, i don't think he will lay there content in a dirty diaper. and er can live through her hunger for a bit, so i get er to follow me to deans room to change his diaper. she "helps" me which means she pours all his diapers on the floor,..climbs onto the changing table trying to grab diaper cream and then tries to eat it..etc. after changing his diaper..i hear him poop again. i change it. no lie..he makes 2 more after that. by this time er is entertyaining herself with toys on the floor. er has been telling me that she has a poopy,..so i let dean lay on the changing table while i change er on the floor. on the way to the living room, i turn the washer to a rinse cycle.
i heat up spaghetti for er and feed dean on the other side at the kitchen table while she eats. i snag a bite here and there. i burp dean then lay him in the pack n play in the living room. i eat some more. i hear dean make another diaper but decide to leave it till er is done eating, i can't leave her in her high chair..and especially with spaghetti. she decides to eat for a long time...which i was happy to see cause usually she will eat then want down...then wants to get back up etc. but also becoming anxious that dean is laying in poop and i hear him start whining a bit. i cover him with a blanket- maybe the warmth will soothe him. it does.she funishes eating and i wash her down. i put her down for her nap then chnage dean. snag some more food cause i am still hungry.
i swaddle dean and give him pacey and check my email while i console him to sleep in my arms. i am typing this with one hand and..ahhh...he is asleep! and things like that happen several times a day all day. i just have to lay aside house cleaning and make decisions where both kids are safe, fed and not sitting in poop. multi-tasking to the max.

god has given me much grace for each of these days. and each morning i remind myself that today the lord has already portioned out a certain amount of grace for me specifically for this day. soo am i going to place my trust in him or myself? and as much as it bugs me that right now there is spaghetti all over my kitchen table, and the laundry has been sitting now in the washing machine for an hour- wet, and clean folded laundry is laying on he couch..and dean's room is a mess from ella's help...i will prob finish this email, put dean down then try to take a nap before hey both wake up. cause i need that rest.

i hope you are not discouraged to have kids. god gives much grace and joy. as crazy or tiresome as the above sounds..it really is a joy! it makes it all so sweet and fun when er is eating her cornbread and looks up at me and says "ma ma" and points at me and smiles. and when dean coos at me after changing the 2nd diaper. and when i decide to see if er understands me and ask her " will you give mommy a diaper for dean?"..and she looks at me, hands me a diaper then takes a diaper and box of wipes to her room. maybe she is trying to change herself? and when i am nursing dean and er is making a spaghetti mess she tells me all the animal noises she knows and laughs at herself. this is a short season and so sweet in so many ways. it makes it all a joy for me!"

New Things

A typical conversation with Ella Reese and other vocabulary. Translation follows:

" nack nack,... pea, pea, pea ?(beating chest). wah, wah wah. " Snack please ( signing for the word please). (whine whine)
"fe fe fe...bar-ga...c-wuh....pu pu, ball" Goldfish? granola bar? cereal? apple? orange.
"Gorgh? Gorgh!" ( poking top of head)" Can I watch Curius George? She points points to her head copying george when he scratches his head.
" Mo. Bar. Moo cow. " Elmo. Barney. Cow print diaper.
" Wee (squints eyes and face), Wee ( again squinting), We (squint)" Copying Dean crying
" cuk cuk cuk" ( moving one hand in a circle) Mommy is cooking.
" mmmm.....whilf,.adjkludlamn( waving arms and hands around with palms up) ...sdhfklsf.. ha ha ha!( throwing head back or slapping her leg)...mmmmm.( thinking)..shdjalsdkdls( does hand motions like an Italian mafia gangster. Very god father-like),..hmmmm..ahsdklhask...ha ha!...ldhhsklad"
We haven't figured out that one yet.

Dean really isn't doing many new things. This is pretty much what he does.

And sometimes a slight change in expression.

Kidding,..he is doing some new things.

Holding head up really well. Starting to coo more every day. Standing for short periods. Eating every 3 hours. Loves baths, eating and passing gas.

As busy and often times crazy as it gets at times around here, God is giving me so much grace! Although each day there is usually some occurance of .....chasing down Ella Reese as I am nursing to either discipline her or take something dangerous from her, consoling a crying baby as I one handed pour milk into a sippy cup or prepare her lunch, attempt to nap within a two hour window while calming a baby and end up sleeping for 15 mintues...and many more scenarios....

I must say that the sacrafice is minimal compared to experiencing all the Grace God is providing for me each day.

The other day I was sitting nursing Dean as I was laughing at Ella Reese dancing around and pretend talking on the phone. I was still in my PJ's and it was 2:00 and there were two loads of unfolded landry I was sitting on, toys everywhere, sippy cup from the morning with milk probably rotten inside that I had been eyeing all day to take to the sink, lunch remains still on the table, dishes piled up in the kitchen and phone ringing....I thought to myself...I am just going to enjoy this and thank the Lord for this unique season and my two babies. And all of a sudden the anxiety of a messy house faded in light of eternity.

( side note. This was immediately after mom left. So please do not be afraid to come by and see us! The house is in much better order now. Mom left Sat. and on Monday Ryan came home and said something to the extent of, "hmmm.....I am starting to notice the house is becoming a bit ...messy". We both of course laughed becasue the house was a disaster. And I think it wasn't until then that he realized how much my mom did when she was here. )

Candid shots

Ella Reese is back to her normal silly, eating all day, gibber gabbery and somewhat fussy self. The "transition period" lasted only like 5 days. But boy did it feel like and eternity!

Dean is doing great. Still eating like a champ. Here is a question for you nursing mommies.

It seems that at LEAST once a day everyday, sometimes twice and sometimes at 11pm, Dean will have a gassy episode. I've fed him and he won't be able to sleep cause he is trying to make a diaper orr has gas. Is that normal to happen everyday?

I have a Canon powershot camera,.which I love, because 1) it is the size of an altoid box and 2) it shoots video. So the other day I downloaded the pics off it to my computer and found a ton of stuff I had forgotten about.

Guess what is going on in these pictures...
Nope, not a tornado or strong gust of wind. Ryan was blowing the leaves with our blower and decided to try it out on our daughter...which she absolutely loved. And he didn't have it on full blast. She kept walking in front of it and giggling.

My beautiful momma and sister. We treated mom to some Japanese food when she was here.

This is during ER's transition time. She refused to let me take her snacl bowl from her during bath. So I was like, "Hey, at least she is not crying. She is can bathe with it as long as she is not crying.". So she did.
Three grandmas and three babies. The middle lady is Doris's mother in law.
ER will sometimes be sweet with Dean and kiss him and pet him on the head. She likes pointing to all his body parts but ends up gouging out his eye when she points to his eye. Shortly after this picture she tried to step on him. Which partly is from us playing with her on the floor at night and her jumping on Ryan.
Forcing her to take a picture with her brother.

ER loves sunglasses. She can put htem on her head on her own and the other day she started pushing them on top of her head like so on her own. And it stayed.

Nightime playtime with daddy. Ryan will lay on the floor and put pillows on himself and ER will jump off the couch onto him. Then Ryan literally throws her into the air back on the couch. This goes on for 30 minutes. She loves it.
We started using cloth diapers. This one is her faovrite. She always moos when I put it on her.
Yes, she is skinny. From the side her belly sticks way out and she looks like an Ethiopian baby. We think maybe she has a tapeworm cause she eats so much and all day.

19 months, a year and 3 weeks

We've been so busy around here it has taken me a few weeks to post these. The ones of Dean were when he was around 3 weeks old. I took him for his 4 week check up today and he is now 9 pounds! 50th percentile in his weight and 75th percentile for his height. He already looks different from these photos.

Mom leaves tommorrow. I almost cried today when it hit me that she was leaving. She has spoiled us all with her cooking, constant cleaning and taking care of Ella Reese for me. And she did it all with such willingness and joy! Thank you mom! It was such a blessing to our fmaily how you served us! We love you and I miss you already....

Around the 2nd week of having Dean home, Ella Reese went through a "what is happening to the world as I knew it" syndrome. The pictures below document her reaction when she realized that Dean was here to stay. She refused to eat dinner at the dinner table and was pretty much crying ALL THE TIME. When I say all the time I really mean all the time. I'd give her a snack and she'd cry. I'd play with her and she'd cry. Just looking at her would make her cry. Ryan and I were completely stumped as to what to do. It was a difficult time for all three of us.

Doris stayed with us for a few days. It was fun having all the cousins together. Evie is now 13 months and learning to walk.

One afternoon while we were all eating lunch, I pointed to Evie and asked ER, " Who is that?". She'd say, "E". I pointed at Doris asking who she was and ER said, " Dor". Pointing at mom ER said, " paw paw". ( the chinese word for grandma). Then I pointed to myself touching my nose and asked ER, "And who is this?". ER stopped and said, "nose!".

Ryan says this photo should have a caption that says "I see dead people" .

Croc girls

Doris trying to feed them both oranges. You can't tell very well, but ER is actually biting down on Doris's finger she wanted the orange so bad. Doris would not let Evie eat an orange that fell on the ground. She was pretty distraught.
More candid pictires to come of the past week...