Lily Rolled Over

I don't recall how old Jamisen was when he rolled over (and if you think I have the luxury of 5 minutes to look back over old blog posts to figure that out, you'd be wrong) but Lily has already rolled over from front to back. Wowzers! You can clearly see the look of intelligence in her eyes, right?

Of course, maybe that look is just because she's just so at home in her Uncle Erik's arms...

Jamisen has learned the art of stalling. When it's time for bed, "I am hungry! I want to take a bath! I want to arrange my cars! I need that one train that can be only be found downstairs in a specific box!" Chris has caught onto his little game. 

One of the funny things Jamisen is saying lately is: "Lily is adorable! She is precious!" It is seriously the sweetest thing of all time. Then, he tries to kiss her on the lips. That just looks a little awkward but he is showing great love and affection towards his sister. 

That doesn't mean we're not still getting our fair share of hit'n'runs with his little toddler self but overall, he is hilariously sweet and kind. When she cries, he loves to smother her with a giant hug. When she quits breathing, and therefore quits crying, he immediately proclaims, "I calmed her down! I calmed her down." Yes, Jamisen, you did. 

I'll end with this hilarious story I got from a girlfriend this morning: I never got to ask you how Lily is doing.  How is she?  Send a current picture when you can.  I meant to share a funny story with you when I saw you.  I got your thank you note before I moved from Yakima to Troutdale, but you must have still been in that new mommy, sleep deprived haze.  The note card was empty inside (unless you wrote in invisible ink).  I knew it was from you (because of the return address) and I appreciated getting the note card because I knew you received the gift.  

 

Actual sleep logged one night last week. And you wonder why I send empty envelopes. 

 

Joking aside, I thought I had been managing so well. This reminds me of a girlfriend that told me the last go-round that she just smiled when I repeated stories after the baby was born because I was so tired. Really, both instances, I truly thought I had been keeping it all together. 

 

Grandma came up last week as Chris was in Saudi. Grandpa did not (despite the fake photo evidence; the photo is so good that I couldn't not put it on the blog). I was so thankful for Grandma and all of her help. The kids love her and I love having her. My blessings are multiplied whenever she is around. 

To end on a sweet note, this is the artwork that came home from school with Jamisen last week. And then? See the note from the teacher below:

Seriously, tear jerking. That kid is such a sweetie. =))) And it makes me grin from ear to ear.

Lily's 12th Millionth Fundraiser

Lily is a pro at fundraisers. She's been to at least 5 in her short life, if not more.

This one was a small soiree for US Senator Patty Murray. I'm looking forward to pulling out these pictures, and all her other political event photos, when Lily runs for a leadership position in Middle School, High School or any other time in her life. Though I dress her almost exclusively in pink, do not mistake that for weakness. My girl never needed to wear blue just to be tough.

It was held at the beautiful home of Chuck and Dee Robinson, right above Village Books.

 It was attended by some friends, mostly old but a few new faces. We inadvertently ended up sitting right at the front for the talking and discussion part so I was holding my breath that Lily would be happy. And, she was. She was fascinated by the entire thing and watched in rapt attention as a strong female leader spoke from the heart.

Everyone remarked on how well behaved Miss Lily was. And she was. She did nothing but smile and grin the entire time and stayed silent through the entire 45 minutes of talking and discussion time. The discussion primarily focused on the current budget negotiations at the Federal level.

This was my second or third Murray co-hosting event and as usual, I was taken by her warm, friendly and personable nature. She was happy to hold Lily and clearly has a soft spot in her heart for little ones - and as a former Preschool teacher, that makes sense!

Baby Lily in a Watermelon

It's hard to believe this little girl fits inside a Watermelon but she is still under 11 pounds, in the 5th percentile for weight and height and yes, fits inside a watermelon. She wasn't thrilled about the watermelon. I suspect it was rather chilly inside that fruit.

This is what it looked like behind the scenes of this watermelon shoot (hat tip to Bob Pritchett for the suggestion of baby-in-watermelon photo shoot).

Lily is a pro at photo shoots already. Of course, she has a lot to live up to. Her brother totally rocked his gourd fall shoot two years ago.

Life has been moving very quickly lately. The change in the seasons has made it very apparent that the adage of 'time moves faster when you have kids' is true. Where did summer go? It was a blur of breastfeeding, diaper changes, working, soaping and gardening. I am extremely blessed to have a supportive, loving family. My brother and Dad spent hours (literally, hours) helping to put up stakes and a growing system for our marionberries and raspberries next year. Big thanks to my Mom for pruning them.

  

I've harvested about 30% of our potatoes and gotten at least 100 pounds thus far. I brought some to work this week, shared some with a friend and am basically planning on eating only potatoes for the next year. Sadly, our tomatoes got a type of mold and we had to rip them all out before the mold got into the ground and hurt all the other plants around it. I'll be rotating that crop area and growing something else there this upcoming year. We got maybe 30 small cherry tomatoes before we had to make the difficult decision to rip all the plants out.

Jamisen got into his first bouncy tent last weekend (at the Greek Food Festival in Bellingham) and jumped, and laughed and jumped and laughed. He had the best time. It took some serious patience on the part of my husband and the help of an older child to coax him in but once he went in, he was totally hooked and didn't want to leave. He has so much energy that bouncing and jumping for a long time did absolutely nothing to diminish it.

Lily has started talking, talking, talking. She loves to ooh, and cooh and squeal. Her smile is so big; it's infectious and her Daddy (like everyone) is clearly taken by her sparkling intellect and wit.

We took a trip to the Bellingham Farmer's Market and were pleased when Uncle Erik and Aunt Cheriss joined us. The irony of needing 6 adults to keep track of 1 rambunctious toddler is not lost on me. Seriously, little Jamisen is is so inquisitive and curious. You just never know where he'll dash off to next or who you'll find him trying to converse with. Uncle Erik is especially good with him and I cannot wait for nieces and nephews. It's Erik and Cheriss's turn to bless my parents with some more grandchildren =)

Jamisen is at home in Uncle Erik's arms. Lily may hate me for that hat when she's older but for now, it's over the top baby-cute. Hands down (yes, pun intended), the best baby gift we got (which was a very close second behind the Baby Beaba) was the Baby Bjorn. I love being able to strap Lily onto my chest and walk around, hike, do chores etc... hands free. My back doesn't love it as much but that's a small price to pay for mobility with a baby.

Lest you think that everything is all hunky dory and easy in our household, this is how I generally look when not out in public. Tired and slightly overwhelmed with the scope of the blessings we have (and by "blessings", I mean "children"). Two kids is way more challenging than one and the girlfriend (I'm looking at you Patrice Valentine) that told me that two wasn't that much harder than one totally lied. Last night, I was putting Jamisen to bed at 8 p.m. when I realized he hadn't had any dinner. That might explain why he was foraging in the cabinets and trying to get his own food while I was trying to calm Lily down and get her to sleep. If I didn't have a supportive husband, amazing extended family and paid help with childcare during the day, I am pretty sure I'd be in the Funny Farm right about now and my children would miss a lot more meals.

Even with all the chaos, we love our family of four. Time goes by so quickly with two children. Can you believe Lily is on her way to being 4 months old?! She's our precious little girl and though the adults in the house are tired, we are consistently happy, entertained, challenged and never stop counting our many blessings.

Lily Lily Bo-Billy

Jamisen looks so hot rider cool on his trike. His Daddy bought him this big wheeler last year and he's finally big enough to push it around, albeit not quite big enough to ride it.

Lily is over 3 months old, headed into 4 months and she remains the light of our little family. Where Jamisen is all energy, motion and hyperactivity, Lily is calm, happy and always smiling. Jamisen and Lily share their talking ability though Lily isn't quite using her words yet and their natural good naturedness. They are both such happy, healthy children. We are truly blessed.

Jamisen loves to take care of his sister. If she's crying, he tries extremely hard to calm her down and help her get back to equilibrium. If he hears her cry from the other room, he runs at full speed to the other room, screaming, "Lily's crying! Lily's crying! Lily's crying!" All the adults also run at full speed for that room though not for the reason you'd think. Rather than immediately going for Lily to calm her down, we immediately grab Jamisen. Left to his own devices, he would smother and crush Lily with his not-so-gentle ministrations.

Grandpa and Grandma Renoud visited a few weeks back and Grandpa Winston got in some great one-on-one time with Miss Lily. She seemed taken with him and he with her.

The time is going by so very quickly. Like with Jamisen, my milk supply continues to slowly taper and dry up despite taking 15 assorted pills daily to try and coax it along. Lily eats at 11 p.m., 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. (give or take 30 minutes on either side of those times) and I remain tired and worn out. Even being so tired, at the 3 a.m. feeding, I still hold onto Lily tightly, breathing in the scent of her hair and feeling all verklempt that this is (most likely) our last baby. She's already looking so much like a little person now. I miss her little 1 month self already ...

Pinterest Mommy

With two happy children at home, time is not slowing down. Bramble Berry is blessed with systems and processes and most importantly, a team of competent leaders (knock on wood). With the support of my team, I'm taking Friday mornings off to spend with the kiddos. I have this fantasy that I'll turn into a Pinterest Mommy, doing all the cool crafts I see on that site and that Jamisen will love them and appreciate our special time together.

This week, I wrapped toilet paper rolls with origami paper, pasted numbers on them and then turned that into a matching colors game, a counting game and a physics (stacking) game. Jamisen played with the project, on an off, for two hours but other than the stacking, really didn't have the attention, focus or understanding to do much other than throw the colorful matching balls and feathers around. Oh well, we'll get 'em next time!

Here Jamisen is, pushing away his biggest competition for Ava's attentions. Oskar and Jamisen play extremely well but are quite the little rivals when it comes to both Ava and the prime toys. More on that in another blog post ...

Ava and Jamisen dominating the geodesic dome during one of our Saturday evening play dates. We served the very upscale fare of pizza on paper plates. It got the job done and the kids loved it.

Sasha and Jamisen enjoying play dough with a side of food. Sasha is a few months younger than Jamisen and they play nicely together, with only a little bit of sharing issues (on Jamisen's part) but so far, Sasha has not encroached on the fair maiden Ava, and thus, the relationship remains love-love.

 Oskar and Jamisen showcasing their little version of WWF wrestling as Ava walks away, undoubtedly in disgust over the boorish behavior exhibited by her two would-be suitors.

Gardening, Giggling and Galumping

We have spent the last few weeks of summer trying to chase off deer in our yard. Chris has purchased these hilarious motion sensing sprinklers and the deer continue to slip by him. It's so funny.

We've actually gone on a walk or three in the neighborhood and I love our neighborhood. I can't wait to ride bikes together as a family and just tool around the 'hood.

We brought the kids to the Farmer's Market a few weeks back and it wasn't quite an unmitigated disaster but it was definitely divide and conquer!

I've got the Fall crops planted, thanks to help from Grandma Faiola. We planted kale, chard, pak choy, lemon cucumbers and beets. Possibly carrots but I don't recall... we still need to harvest the last of the zucchini, yellow squash and all the potatoes and then, stake the raspberries and plant seed happy soil stuff (no idea what it's called; ground cover maybe?) to till under in the spring. Something about crop rotation and ground nutrients too ... I'm learning a lot but clearly, it's not all sinking in.

We built a second enclosed rabbit and deer proof fence for the garden. Clearly, 50% of it is working.

 

Jamisen switches classes this week to a brand new class at Hillcrest. Don't tell him but I'm scared he won't like the kids and I'm not happy about him being separated from the friends he's already made. Lily was at work 8 hours with me last week and is going to be down to just 4 this week. It's a gradual decrease and I wrestle with euphoria (8 whole hours to do work!) and guilt (8 whole hours without my baby!). It's every working Mother's dilemma.

I've been making protein shakes and freezing them as mini popsicles. Jamisen thinks he's getting away with something when he has them for breakfast. I think I'm a genius. We're both winning.