Family Traditions

I'm currently reading The Happiness Project and I'm currently on the chapter discussing parenting and family life. One of the things the author mentions is the importance of traditions for children.

I look back on the holidays as a kid, and the anticipation, excitement and love that surrounded the holidays meant (and still means) a great deal to me. Watching Jenna recall specifics of Christmas from last year makes me ever so anxious to celebrate with her this year. We've purchased a Christmas dress for photos, for a visit to Santa and for Christmas day and she asks to see it nightly. She knows she can't wear it, but her excitement is palpable.

Her recall amazes me. We don't attend church all that frequently (or really at all). My niece, Annika was baptized this past weekend and when we told Jenna we were getting her dressed up to go to church she said "Oh! Church! Mommy, can I see the water? The water at church?" She was SO excited! And, mind you, the last time we went to church was when she was baptized at 11 months old. Where they poured water over her head. It's a little scary to know she is able to recall memories from what I feel like was so long ago.

But this brings me back to traditions... I love the holidays. Jenna does, too. It's the middle of November, and she's still talking about the witches, skeletons, ghosts and pumpkins from Halloween. I am currently talking up Thanksgiving, telling her the family gets together (we'll have the WHOLE family together this year! All grandparents, aunt & both uncles and her cousin together under one roof!) and we eat turkey. She knows turkeys gobble-gobble.

I'm also anxious to celebrate Christmas. She knows where the decorations are in the garage, knows that Santa wears a red suit. When you would ask her what she was going to ask Santa for when she sits on his lap she used to say 'A red present'. Now, when you ask her what she's going to say to Santa she says "Santa, I've been a good girl all year. May I please have a bicycle?" (we were going for tricycle, but she knows what a bicycle is because of Daddy's in the garage, I think a tricycle is foreign to her).

Anyway, the point of this rambling post at 4:00 am is that I'm excited. I'm so happy to be formulating predictable celebratory events for Jenna, for Nick and for our upcoming addition. I'm enjoying establishing 'O family traditions'. I think I enjoy them almost as much as Jenna. The addition of children to our lives has made the holidays so much more loving, caring and enthusiastic.

I've been holding out

So, it's been months. MONTHS since I've updated the blog. The new job is great, and keeping me beyond busy. Which I love. I haven't written on the blog for another reason, however.

I tried to document it in photos, though.

What's that, Jenna? What are you holding? Trying to take away? Ohhhh.... it looks like one from about 2.5 years ago.
She did eventually warm up to the idea. Well at least long enough to let me take a photo while she was eating in her new shirt.
AND I became an Aunt! To a beautiful baby girl, Annika.
And we got an opportunity to see our little one shortly thereafter.
And the belly shots began. Shortly after I was LAID OFF. Pregnant, unemployed and job hunting.
As the belly grew, so did my need for maternity wear (still unemployed here)
And still job hunting (hence the time available to shoot belly photos)
My last unemployed photo. I accepted a job shortly after this image was taken. Thank goodness. It's a fab position with a great company, too. I'm really, really excited and enjoying it.
And shortly after accepting, we celebrated with a trip down to Disneyland.
:)
And my most recent photo. I've been at the job about 3 months now, I'm happy as can be, the pregnancy is treating me really, really well. I continue to forget I'm pregnant. The fact that we're expecting another GIRL in January really blows my mind. I'm excited, anxious and nervous about the whole thing, but it feels good to be completing our family.

I hope to do another update shortly regarding life, Jenna, the household craziness... and I'll get there. Hopefully before this one is born :D

Jenna's 2nd Birthday Party!

OK. It's obvious I'm behind on blogging. We had a great time throwing Jenna's 2nd birthday party and I actually spent the majority of the party enjoying our friends and family instead of shooting pictures (shocking, I know!) I did snap one or two shots of the details, and Pop shot the photos of family and friends. Thanks, Pop!

The entry way. When I originally planned this party, I was going to heavily focus on pinwheels. When I was laid off, the budget was drastically pulled back, but we were able to still keep that essence. This, along with large pinwheels on the lawn and citrus colored balloons were what greeted guests to the party. I still have it hanging on my door because it's just too pretty to take down!

Favors for the kids.
This balloon is HUGE! And still floating in our living room. Jenna loves it.
The cake/favor/gift table. There's a banner hanging along with pinwheels and garland.
Jenna wanted to dig into the gifts early... umm not yet.
It's my party and I'll cry if I want to (after being scolded to stay away from the gifts and cake until later).
The jumpy house was a huge hit! A big thanks to a friend that had this hanging out in her garage. Ummm the kids all LOVED it! I think we may have to invest in one sooner rather than later.
Fiona!
Kellen had a blast in the jumpy house, too.
Although it looks like Landon was begging to come out, I think he was actually trying to entice Pop to come in and jump, too!
Grandma's dip was a hit with the adults and kids... it was addicting!
The pink car was a big hit, too. Which is good because Jenna NEVER plays with it!
Singing happy birthday!!!
getting down on her cupcake. Delish!
We had a great time. The weather was perfect, the company was great and Jenna continued to talk about her birthday for no less than 2 weeks. Actually, she wished me a happy birthday this morning, and proceeded to wish 'Jenna' a happy birthday, too. She's a bit obsessed!

March for Babies - 2010

We had a GREAT time walking for the March of Dimes this year. An awesome time. It was encouraging seeing the large numbers of strollers with birth weeks listed (26, 28, 30, etc.). It was emotional to hear the story of one woman discussing her loss in front of hundreds of people. It was inspiring to see the hundreds of people out and about for such a great cause. I was proud to be part of a group that was able to raise over $3400! Many thanks to Alison for getting the group together. We had a great time as a family walking together and I hope to make this an annual event.

Here's our family. I love this picture (thanks, Michelle for taking it!)
My stylin queen wearing the glasses Alison got for the kidlets...

Yeah, the glasses didn't last too long!

It was a beautiful day... Bright and sunny out!

This guy was too cute!

This line of people extended both directions as far as the eye could see. It was a beautiful sight.

It was so great to walk. It was so great to see some friends that inspired me to walk. Friends that have lost their babies far too soon, children that were born early but were celebrating their life, their birth. It was such a great event and I get goosebumps when I think of the impact of the March for Babies walks all across the country.

To those that donated, THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart, from the bottom of Nick's heart, from the bottom of Jenna's heart. We really appreciate it.

Now! Who's gonna join us next year for the March for Babies? ;-)

Potty Training

So, I'm not a fan of diapers. Who is, right? I've talked about our open attempts to get rid of diapers super early on. Nick's co worker told us about the 3 day potty training method and how it worked for her son, who's about 3 months older than Jenna.

We checked it out, and decided to give it a go last weekend. We were mentally prepared to throw away diapers and never look back. (For the record, we had Jenna throw away some diapers, the rest we packed up to pass on to a friend. I know she would've used them had we not done the potty training, but I didn't see the need to waste them before they were used...)

I had plenty of 'big girl underwear'. Princesses, Dora and Minnie Mouse were the ones we chose. I had started feeding her higher fiber foods a couple of days before, and I was all set to try to get her to drink as much water as was possible to allow for more learning opportunities. I took a Monday off of work, knowing I would need to be home for 3 full days before sending her back to day care. Nick was fully on board, and although we both weren't 'excited' to do this, we were both prepared to spend a full weekend at home sans diapers.

Saturday morning, we started off in diapers, ate breakfast. I did some laundry and meal prep to ensure my full and undivided attention would be on Jenna that day once we made the switch. After breakfast, we went up stairs and I told her she was a big girl and she gets to wear big girl underwear. Diapers are for babies. I asked her to throw the diapers in the garbage as we didn't need them anymore (I had packed up the ones we're giving to a friend, leaving ~ 4 out for her to throw away). She threw them away. She was in a tshirt and her big girl underwear for the rest of the weekend. We cranked the heat up (it was a super rainy weekend, perfect for staying in!) so she wouldn't get cold.

We then took her to the bathroom and told her that pee pee and poo poo goes in the potty. She's a big girl now and needs to tell us when she needs to go pee pee or poo poo so we could put it in the potty. We told her to keep her big girl underwear dry.

Of course there were accidents, lots of accidents. The system basically says when you see them going to scoop them up (no negativity at all... the word no was never uttered) and tell them 'yucky, your underwear isn't dry' and try to get them to finish on the potty. If they get anything in the potty, praise, praise, praise! Cheer! Put dry underwear on them and give them a reward (not if you go potty, you get a sticker, but 'good job! Here's a sticker'). We chose stickers as rewards. I didn't want to do anything food related and she's been obsessed with stickers (she's been getting them from Trader Joe's) so I figured that would be an awesome reward. Stickers were similar brands to the underwear... princesses, cars and mickey mouse clubhouse. Yes, we're all Disney nerds in the O household.

There were lots of accidents. Of course. They started getting easier and easier to catch as we were learning her signs (deer in headlights look, then she looks down... by that time, most of the time, we had scooped her up and running to the potty. Sometimes she would stop the stream, sometimes she couldn't. Lots of clean up. But we stuck with it. We were given the warning 'don't get frustrated, stick with it' and that's what we did. We played, we read books. We watched sleeping beauty (quickly becoming her favorite). We read Sleeping Beauty, and I downloaded the song 'Once upon a dream' and we danced to the song. All the while, accidents.

I put her down for a nap in a pair of padded underwear (gerber training pants). She went right to sleep (apparently we wore her out in the morning!) and when she woke up, she was dry! We went right to the potty (you're not supposed to ask 'Do you need to go potty?' but instead remind them that they're a big girl and you need to tell me when you need to go pee pee, ok?') and she went. Again, lots of excitement, lots of praise, BIG smiles from my big girl. At the end of the first day, we had 13 wet pairs of underwear. She didn't go poop this day (I think, my memory is getting fuzzy).

Second day she woke up wet. I checked her at 10pm the night before, and she *seemed* dry, but when she got up the next morning, her padded underwear was completely soaked. I vowed to go to pull ups the next night because I just felt terrible. She didn't seem to mind too much. The rest of the morning went really well. There weren't nearly as many accidents, and I was getting a little cocky in that I figured she was almost there. Nap time came around, she woke up wet, and the rest of the afternoon we had accidents galore. Still not nearly as many as day one, but she regressed quite a bit. I was frustrated, but kept on going. If we had gone this far, might as well keep with it, right? No negativity showed with either Nick or I, we just kept praising when she got ANYTHING in the potty and cheering galore. I realized that she didn't go when I was sitting right there with her, so I would stand at the door with my back to her and she'd be able to release... this was a huge breakthrough! This method also doesn't let the kids sit on the toilet and wait to go, so if she didn't go within the first 30 seconds or so, we'd get off and wait until the next accident all while asking (at least once every 10 minutes) 'Tell Mommy when you need to go potty, OK?' I don't think we had nearly as many wet underwear the next day (I didn't count). I felt bad when I put a pull up on her that night and she said 'diapers are for babies'. I told her these were 'Big girl nigh nights'. She woke up once in the middle of the night, I took her to the potty, she didn't go, but I swapped out her pull ups for dry ones. No biggie.

Third day was similar to the second day.... morning went great, afternoon not as good, but apparently I decided to test this out because we went to Target that afternoon. We didn't have many accidents at all this day, she would lead me to the potty after I asked her 'tell me when you need to go pee pee, ok?'. At the end of the third day, I was really pleased with our progress. We caught all the poops in the potty (in that she never once went in her underwear). I understood her signs (the look she gets, where she goes prior to starting to go potty), I did a lot of laundry, and I'm sure our PG&E bill will be higher this month from keeping the heat cranked, but she did really well.

Tuesday, she went back to day care and I was worried. I just was worried that all the work we did at home wouldn't transition. I was worried that Irma would get frustrated (although she was really on board and gave us the encouragement that we needed to really take the leap and do this. She really felt that Jenna was ready, showed appropriate knowledge to give this a go and was excited for this week. She only requested that Jenna be sent in pants instead of shorts or dresses because they soak up more of the pee than the others.

Jenna had a few accidents at Irma's, but she was working on the phrase "Irma, I have to use the potty!!" (It's very cute!) Just like she progressed quickly at home, she's doing much better at day care, too. Tonight while taking a bath, Jenna yelled 'Irma, I have to use the potty!' (lol, we were at home) I pulled her out of the bath, sat her soaking wet on the toilet and she went potty. I was pretty proud as I remember saying to Nick every now and then (before) um, did she just pee? Gross.

So is she fully potty trained? Um, no. I don't know when that will happen. Is she in underwear full time during the day? Yes. On day 5, she's down to 1-2 accidents a day. And those accidents are often with her starting to go, stopping and looking up as to say... let's GO! So from 13 pairs of wet underwear down to 1 or 2 in a couple days, I'm more than pleased.

Also, looking back on our long weekend, it actually is really positive in my eyes. I really enjoyed spending the quality one on one time with her minimal distractions... no computer, phone, internet, just Jenna, Nick and I hanging out together. We were warm and cozy in the house, playing, dancing, reading, singing, watching movies... it was fun! Weird.

I always dreaded the 'real' potty training but this ended up being a super positive experience for me, for Jenna and I'm pretty sure for Nick. Yes. We became frustrated. YES. But it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. We didn't get cabin fever, we didn't drive each other nuts. Yes, there was a lot of clean up, but going in with a system (clean dry underwear under the sink, throw wet ones directly in the wash, wash after she goes to bed, tag teaming when I needed to get dinner ready, making sure to have a house full of groceries ready for the weekend, 'rewards' in the upper cabinet, potties in both her bathrooms, burp cloths to clean up messes) it all worked out really well. I'll recommend this to anyone who's willing to give it a go. It was a good experience for us.

Do I still expect accidents? Yes. Will I ever go back to diapers? Not until I have a newborn again. ;-)

I realized on day 3 I took no photos of this... She needed my full attention, 100% of the time. But because I'm a photo nut, I had to grab my camera during lunch. She looked like such a big girl, feeding herself SOUP with a SPOON. I didn't want to snap a photo of her in her underwear, but I decided to snap her profile shot. I *love* her profile. Not a perfect photo, but it sums the weekend up in my mind perfectly. I love my bed headed big girl. She makes me so proud.

Jenna is just shy of 22 months and she's wearing underwear.

Mama can't knit around J anymore

So this started around a week ago. I sit down to knit (lots of babies due and being born this year!) and Jenna started by grabbing my second needles and clacking them together while I worked on a blanket (2 circular method for those few knitters that read my blog). With the blanket, and plenty of stitches between 'trading' the needles, it worked just fine.
But now that I'm working on baby hats, um, yeah, when I go to swap the needles, she gets SO MAD that I'm taking HER needles away from her. I am SO excited to teach her to knit, so we can sit there side by side, "kitting with yaarrn?!"

Easter

My how the time flies. This is Jenna's second Easter, and the first we had a blast, but she was too young for an egg hunt. This year, however, the Easter Bunny stopped by for a visit. We talked him up, and she was SO excited every time we mentioned his name. (I've decided it's a male bunny, don't ask me why). When we put her to sleep the night before, we told her the Easter Bunny was going to stop by the house, hide some eggs and bring her a basket of goodies.


And so he visited....
First Egg! Weeee!

There's MORE!?

Checkin out her loot...

Play with the breakable eggs, or the toys? Hmmm......

I didn't like either of those, I'll stick with this box. (sigh) Doesn't she look like she could be 8 here!? Except for the diaper box, I know... but STILL! How did she get to be so big!?

Holy cow, she's adorable.

So excited to be singing along in her Easter best.

Hmmmm.... Bread?

BREAD! When do we eat, Ma!?

I guess it's good based on her face.... or she's trying to say cheese while eating the 'bread'.

::sigh:: time really does fly by when you're not looking.

How is it possible that she'll be TWO in a few short months?

Too long, it's been too long

It's been way too long since I've posted. I've been enjoying my time with Jenna lately. This is a fun age in that she's running around, talking up a storm, can (and has) said "I lub you" with kisses and is just all around awesome. She's also throwing temper tantrums, but I'll ignore that for this gooey post.

We're in full swing this holiday season. We went to visit Santa and although she says his name and points out every stuffed Santa, Santa cartoon, etc. When we went to go visit him this year, she watched in amazement as the other kids were talking to him, telling him what they wanted for Christmas. When it was her turn, I picked her up and we headed his way.

Once we were standing next to him I asked her "Do you want to see Santa?" She replied with feverish head shaking and "No, no, NO!!" So I asked the next logical question... "Do you want to sit on his lap?" at this point, she's scrambling up my arm like a baby monkey trying to crawl on her Mom's back.

Santa suggested a photo with Mom and baby. I looked over at Nick and said "How about a FAMILY photo" (shooting daggers). Nick came and sat on Santa's right knee, I sat on his left knee (how long has it been since I've sat on Santa's lap!?) and I held Jenna to my left side... as far from the fat jolly man as possible.

We snapped a few photos and I didn't like them... I wanted to mimick last year's photo. So, I asked Santa if we could try again. He said OK and I put the munchkin on his lap. Her eyes were filled with terror and she was signing "All Done" over and over and over... also saying "No" and shaking her head back and forth. BUT Mama got her photo.... :)

Lately we've taken to driving around to look at Christmas lights. It doesn't matter if there is a single strand on the gutters or if there's a full display with reindeer and blow up snow globes... the same reaction comes from the back seat each time we pass by a lit house. "Wow, wow, WOW!!" the second that it's out of her sight this can be heard "More, please... more, PLEASE" I haven't been able to figure out how to tell her that we'll get to the next house ASAP.

She also loves the tree (when the lights are off, we tell her it's sleeping... she makes the shhhh face as to not disturb the tree). The red balled ornaments she would point out and say "Apple" and I kindly remind her that they're not apples, but they're ornaments. To which she replies with 'orddednts' (or something similar... it's hard to type out toddler speak). She also enjoys pointing out each person's stocking.

Possesion is really big to her right now. When we explain that she can't have Mommy's coffee... she points and says "Mommy's" then turns to Nicks and says "Daddy's"... same with pretty much all beverages and anything else she's not supposed to have (we tell her it's ours as to avoid her throwing fits to get it... ours = off limits... it's working, sort of).

Ahhh, she's fun. I love her. Can we keep her like this forever?

The P family annual tree trip!

Last year, the P family was nice enough to bring us down a Christmas tree from their annual trip up to the mountains to cut down a tree. Last year, we traded them for a raspberry teething paci (tree for a paci, fair trade, right!?) This year, we decided to join in the fun.

So we gathered all the cold weather gear we could find (including Jenna's awesome snowsuit sent out from New Jersey courtesy of Nana) and picked up some super cute rain boots for Jenna. We bought the next size up to hopefully last her the season. That proved to be a bit of a mistake. As we hiked through the snow (while I carried her) I would hear 'uh oh, uh oh, uh oh!' I looked down... Jenna was wearing one boot... turn around and 3 feet behind us was the other hello kitty boot on the ground... pick it up, put it on start walking again... repeat. Over and over and over. Meh, at least they're cute!

We found our tree pretty quickly, and returned to replace her boot once again ;)
Here we are with the Christmas tree of 2009. Isn't it purdy!? Yeah, I love it. Too bad it was WAY too tall for our little ceilings. Maybe next year we'll be in a house with vaulted ceilings!? Maybe?

Landon wasn't digging the sled. I think he was playing along, but just wasn't excited about it. He liked being there, but preferred to be held.

Jenna, on the other hand... once she discovered the sled... it was all over. If we picked her up, she was ANGRY! Put me down people! Don't you know there's a sled and snow to play in!?

Can you say 'love'!?

We picked her up yet again for a quick photo op. See the displeasure on her face!? WHY AM I NOT DOWN ON THE GROUND!?

Stomping around in the snow...

The P family dogs came along for some fun, too!

Someone pull this!

Yep, Landon wasn't into it... They really are opposite in their mannerisms.

Sally brought along the best chili ever! Perfect on such a cold day!

More sled action. I know you're shocked.

She figured if she just laid down then she wouldn't have to maneuver in that 'can't put my arms down' snowsuit and she could just enjoy the ride.

LOTS of trees!

Ours is loaded up and ready go 4 wheelin once again! This is the first time the 4Runner's been on fresh snow. We had a blast 4 wheeling :)

The P family with their tree! (They have vaulted ceilings, can you tell!?)

The night before the trip I went to get gas at 9:30 pm. When I got in the car to go, the driver's side headlight was out. With no auto parts stores open at that time of night, I just filled up and we were on our way the next day. We let the caravan know our issue and they kept an eye out for our one eye on the drive up. On the drive back down to the bay, we stopped in Auburn for gas. As we were leaving the gas station, we noticed the other light was out. It was 6pm, in November, pitch black out with NO headlights! We pulled over with the group, looked up the nearest Target and headed that direction with our high beams on blinding only one party of our caravan. On our way, we saw an open Kragen Auto Parts, on a Sunday evening, at 6:30 pm in Auburn. A quick u-turn and stop and we were on the road again.

The trip was beyond fun. It was a suuuper long day, Jenna barely napped at all (30 minutes there, 30 minutes after loading up and 30 minutes before getting home. We left our house at 7am and didn't get home until 9 at night.

I think it's pretty safe to say that we'll be adding this tradition to our agenda next year for sure!