Scarf Play

Thankless Parenting

Very seriously, Elizabeth informed me, "The reason I don't love you as much as Grandma and Grandpa is that I don't get to spend as much time with them and so it's more special. And that's why I'm more obedient to them too."

Spring and Socializing

Elizabeth has suddenly hit the age where all she wants to do is play with friends. She lights up whenever our neighbors or my mom's neighbors are outside, and wants to go out to play with them immediately. She dumps me in favor of anyone she sees that might be within a few years of her age. (Actually, she prefers older kids. Poor things. They don't know that she's not so good yet at what older kids like to do and tries to rope them into her little kid games.)

Last night, we brought our neighbors (5 and 8, both boys) to the park with us. Elizabeth was in her element. Today she and a friend are running around our yard picking every growing thing they can find. I had no idea we had so many dandelions already! I'm not letting them back in until Amelie wakes up from her nap, so I hope they find a lot to do!

For a day that's supposed to be so nice and warm, it sure is cloudy and cool out. My feet are freezing.

"Woof, Woof!"

Whenever I sing even just the opening bars of "How Much Is That Doggy in the Window," Amelie grins. It's a sure-fire way to transforms cries into a gummy smile every time.

Do you have any idea how many times I sang that dumb song on our road trip?

Praise God!

We got into our first choice for Elizabeth's kindergarten next year: St. Anthony Park. We are very excited and are so thankful that we have a God who takes care of us every step of the way.

Note: This is a particularly important praise because through a mistake by the public schools, we did not receive an acceptance letter in the mail. Elizabeth takes gymnastics at St. Anthony Park, and when I was there last night, I asked the principal when the acceptance letters were going out. When she said they had already gone out, I thought that meant we didn't get in. She kindly checked on our name for us, though, and we were on the list! The deadline for accepting a placement at that school is tomorrow, so if I hadn't asked, we would have missed out.

Ah, Modesty

Remember how I said that Elizabeth's self-esteem was palpable in her dress this weekend?

Today, Elizabeth wistfully said, "I wish I was the bride. The bride gets to be in all the pictures."

It Takes a Village

It was a lot of work to make all of us beautiful for the wedding! From Isaac's rented tux to Elizabeth's thrift store flower girl dress, I had to think of all the accessories as well: Ellie's cousin's white dress shoes, her friend's dress-up white barettes, my mother's belt, my friend's necklace... It took a village to make us all gorgeous, but I think it worked!

Note: Amelie's dress looked a lot nicer than this before she took a nap in the Baby Bjorn and ruined all my hard work ironing the pleats!

One of the most rewarding parts was watching Elizabeth twirl around in her dress. Her proud self-esteem was palpable! I regret not getting any pictures of the ring-bearer before he changed out of his cute little tux, but the two of them had a fantastic time blowing bubbles after the ceremony.

This picture is not staged - honest! They were really doing it on their own!

Chicago Trip

This weekend we drove to Gurnee, Illinois (a little north of Chicago) to celebrate Isaac's brother's wedding. We left on Thursday morning, stopping for three times on the way: gas/bathroom, lunch/climbing on rocks, and the Racine, WI zoo on the shores of Lake Michigan. The girls did pretty well, although Amelie took a lot of energy to entertain. Elizabeth spent her time finding license plates and coloring their states on a map (we found about 30 states and 3 provinces!).

We arrived at the hotel in time to swim before bed, then crashed. The next day, the rest of Isaac's immediate family had arrived in the same hotel, and we enjoyed playing some games and swimming with them before tackling wedding stuff like the bachelor party, rehearsal, and rehearsal dinner.

Saturday was entirely taken up by the wedding, which I'll write about in another post. On Sunday morning, we drove to the Milwaukee Zoo, which was fantastic. (Our membership at the Minnesota Zoo allowed us to check out these other zoos for free!) We loved the peacocks running around freely at both zoos, as well as animals that we don't get to see in Minnesota: elephants, rhinoceroses, many different monkey/ape species, jellyfish and octopi, and tons of other cool stuff.

It was very cold and rainy during our zoo time, but the girls didn't seem to mind. Elizabeth was most excited about the elephants, and they lived up to her expectations by playing with balls, thundering all around their cages, and trumpeting loudly.

Amelie mostly enjoyed being out of her carseat for a while. She watched some animals, but spent the majority of her time clawing Isaac's neck and playing with his ears.

A great time was had by all!

Goodbye!

We are leaving to drive to Chicago! We're stopping at different zoos on the way there and the way back, and celebrating Isaac's little brother's wedding while we're there. I'll post lots of pictures, especially of my handsome tux-clad husband and my beautiful flower girl, when I get back. Talk to you Monday!

How Great Are the Depths of God's Love!

My mother was cuddling with Elizabeth and telling her how much Grandma and Grandpa love her: "We love you SOOO much (but not as much as God!)."

Elizabeth nodded wisely. "I know. God loves me 100 trillion so muches."

How true.

Weight Loss Wednesday

Weight Loss This Week: 1.5 pounds

Total Over Last Three Weeks: 3.5 pounds

I have to say that those numbers really aren't that impressive. I think that I was losing just about that much just from nursing before I tried all this healthy stuff. Oh, well. The wedding is this weekend, I fit in my dress, and I guess that's all I can ask. (No flat tummy yet, just in case anyone is curious.) I'll keep on trucking, though.

Another Outdoor Girl

We're gearing up for hiking season and spending lots of time outside. No matter the vehicle, Amelie loves it!

Vehicle #1: Backpack on Daddy Vehicle #2: Baby Bjorn on Mommy
Vehicle #3: First Time on Swings at Park

Vehicle #4: Plain Old Stroller

It's going to be a great summer!

Happy Easter!

We enjoyed a lovely, relaxed Easter this year. After celebrating the resurrection in a FABULOUS church service, we headed over to my parents' house for pictures, delicious food, games, and a hike.

Elizabeth had practiced telling the story of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection using the Resurrection Eggs, and so she shared that with all of us. I was proud of the sheer number of facts she recited, such as Joseph putting the body in his tomb and Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane at the Mount of Olives. I have to remember that 4-year-olds aren't known as public speakers for a reason!

Why Little Girls Are Not Allowed to Wear Make-Up

Check out Elizabeth's bi-color eyebrows!

Spring Egg Hunt

Our family chooses to do a Spring Egg Hunt on a day near Easter so that we don't detract from celebrating Christ's resurrection on Easter Sunday itself. Elizabeth was pretty excited to search the house for plastic eggs. I filled them with 2 M&Ms, 2 jellybeans, or 2 coins each.
Isaac is an egg-hiding master and pays attention to things like color and camoflauge. He comes from a long tradition of egg and jellybean hiders. One year his uncle Peter hid jellybeans in our house and we were finding them for months. Actually, we found one more than a year later hiding in a dried flower arrangement on our wall!

Once the basket was full, Elizabeth had the pleasure of sorting all her loot.

She chose a special lollipop from my godparents as her eat-right-away treat. She often chooses a sucker because she knows they last a long time!

Amelie was pretty pleased that we let her participate by chomping on an egg too.

Buyer Beware

This is how much rice I found in a box more than double its size. I admit that it's my fault for not checking package weight. But still: the company is either purposely trying to mislead me or it is purposely wasting packaging. Not cool, Uncle Ben.

After a Long Run

I ran 6.5 miles today in about 70 minutes, setting new personal time and distance bests.

When I got back home, Elizabeth and her cousin Sydney were at the door waiting for me in their "running outfits." So we girls ran around the block together, and I felt very underdressed in comparison!

This is my red face after several minutes of rest. Nice, huh? But please notice Amelie helping me stretch out and sitting up all by herself!

Weight Loss Wednesday

Total This Week: 0.5 pounds

Total Since Start (2 Weeks): 2 pounds

• This week was a little disappointing because I have been exercising really hard. I ran 13 miles in seven days, lifted weights, did push-ups, played volleyball, and did Pilates. I limited myself to one sweet snack a day, although I was a little bit on and off with the two bottles of water a day.
• On the positive side, I took out a bunch of pre-pregnancy jeans that I hadn't fit into 10 pounds ago and they fit. I can tell a difference in the way all my pants fit. And since October, I have lost over 35 pounds (and one small baby that accounted for it, too!).
• Maybe it's muscle mass?

Encouraging Evangelism?

One of the areas that God has been speaking to me about lately (actually, for the past two years or so!) is evangelism. His love is so amazing that we should be compelled to tell others about Him. I have a long way to grow in this area. I feel like I've gained a lot of head knowledge but because of my lack of perception and boldness, my experience is very weak.

Here's an interesting dilemma: what should be a child's role in evangelism? On the surface, it should be the same as ours - to share the good news of Christ with other people. But children don't have the same perceptions or social awareness as grown-ups. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

I would be upset if someone was trying to "evangelize" Elizabeth into some other religion. I certainly am not adverse to her learning about other religions and developing friendships with people who don't believe the same way we do, but I recognize that young children are very impressionable and I want to be the one who teaches her about the Truth at this tender age. So if Elizabeth has a friend over to play, and we talk with the friend about what we believe, is that "evangelizing" the friend? And is it different if it's Elizabeth or me that talks about it?

Obviously, I'm still trying to sort out what I believe should be a child's role in evangelism. Right now I think that it's great to encourage kids to tell others about their faith, what they believe, and why they live the way they do. But I have to admit that I cringed when Elizabeth had a friend over whose family believes there are many ways to God and Elizabeth started telling the friend about Satan. Any thoughts?

Our Wanna-Be Kindergartner

During breakfast today, Elizabeth asked, "How many is 13 if you do it 42 times?" She was trying to count how many holes are in the webbing on our dining room chairs, and decided (on her own, completely untaught) that multiplication would make this problem easier.

Last week I brought home a new concealer stick. When Elizabeth asked what it was, I told her it was "makeup." She stared at it intently. "No, Mama. It doesn't say M-A on it."

She likes it when I write her notes and stories that she can read herself, and it's getting easier to do this as her reading vocabulary expands.

We've finished the Chronicles of Narnia series and The Hobbit, and now we're reading the American Girls series. The one we're reading focuses on Molly, who lived during WWII, and it explains WWII in a pretty age-appropriate way. Now Elizabeth likes to play "bomb shelter" just like Molly did. I had to forbid her from teaching it to her friends, because I don't want any angry phone calls from their parents!

She's working on mastering the Easter story (with the aid of the Resurrection Eggs) so that she can tell it to my parents on Easter Sunday.

I've never been the parent of an almost 5-year-old before. It's really fun!

Six Months Old Already!

Amelie Joy is six months old already. At her doctor check-up today, she weighed in at 16 pounds and 10 ounces. Compared to her big sister, who weighed 18 pounds at this age, she's a peanut, but she is still in the 60th percentile!

Here's a list of Amelie's favorites at this age:

• Food: Barley cereal (she's only tried two foods, so this isn't saying much!)
• Activities: Spitting and blowing bubbles loudly, grabbing at anything within reach and trying to eat it
• Movement: Scooting backwards, rolling all over, and squirming in a circle
• Song: "How Much Is That Doggy in the Window?"
• Books: Baby Beluga, Snuggle Puppy, and Moo, Baa, La La La
• Baby Carrier: It's a toss-up between the Baby Bjorn and the baby backpack
• Toys: Things that make noises or are made of cloth, especially if they have tags
• Bathtime Activity: Eating toes
• Diaper-Changing Activity: Eating toes (shoes or socks only add to the fun)

Whoops!

The good news: I learned how to disassemble my new blender.

The bad news: I did this while it was still attached to the base. It made a huge mess.

The good news: I was able to salvage some of the smoothie by scraping it with my fingers from the counter into the glasses.

The bad news: I wasn't strong enough to unscrew the very stuck base of the jar from the blender. I had to leave it until Isaac came home.


The good news: I have a very loving and kind husband who fixed the rest of my mess without a word of complaint and loves me anyway!

Why We Use Heavy Blankets for Floor Play

If we use a light blanket, Amelie likes to eat it. Then she rolls over while still holding it. My baby is six months old and she already knows how to make a burrito. (Of course, she uses herself as the filling!)

Weight Loss Wednesday

It's time for Weight Loss Wednesday! I actually started this last Sunday, so it's been a week and a half now. I've done very well with my exercise goals: I've been running three times a week and I've stuck to my challenging training schedule with distance. I've also done the Pilates video three times a week, and I added push-ups and some arm weights before and after the video.

I've done decently with my eating goals. I missed the second bottle of water two of the days. I held myself to one treat a day, but it's very easy to argue with myself about the definition of "one treat." After all, if previously I would have snacked on some candy, four Fudgsicles, and then some cookies, shouldn't two Fudgsicles count as one treat? Or a moderate amount of popcorn or pretzels not count at all because it's less than I wanted to eat and it's not technically sweet? I definitely have some growth to do in this area.

The results after one week? 1.5 pounds. Not bad. Still a long way to go. (The accountability of this blog sure helps, though!)

Go, Me!

Last night, volleyball was a little slow. So after I had played for a couple hours, I decided that it was a waste of my preciously guarded baby-sitter time and I went for a run instead. My training schedule had decreed a five-mile run, and I wasn't sure if I could handle that or not. My previous longest run was four miles, and that took me 41 minutes.

I went really slow, but I ran for five miles! FIVE MILES! It took me 62 minutes. I don't know if I'm more proud of the distance or for being able to run (okay, jog) for an hour. I felt really good while I was running, but as soon as I stopped, everything started hurting. I'm sore today, but I feel really good about myself right now.