Baby Alise Arrives

Meet Baby Alise Joan. YAY! Baby Alise arrived on Sunday, August 10, just shortly before Erik's birthday. What a nice birthday present - and only a few days behind the actual due date.

Baby Alise is perfect; she was born at 21" and a full 9 pounds 6 ounces. This happy Aunty won the $100 

'Guess the Baby Weight!' contest - by a full pound! I was the highest guess at 8 pounds, 6 ounces. Even the nurses didn't go that high. Baby Alise surprised us all by clocking in at such a healthy weight. 

Grandpa and Grandpa Faiola were heroic. They drove up from Olympia on Friday at 10 p.m. and got to Bellingham at 1 a.m. to make sure they didn't miss a minute of the labor and birth. 

They even slept at the hospital, on the hard hospital waiting room chairs. Everyone was so excited to meet perfect baby Alise that it was completely worth it. 

Cheriss redefines the word 'warrior.' She was tenacious and impressive in her determination to have Alise without a c-section. She was in labor for over 2 days and pushed way longer (4.5 hours) than any typical woman would have been able to handle. We all are in awe of her amazing athletic, Mama Bear performance. 

Erik is a natural, of course. He has been singing and dancing and changing diapers like a pro. Baby Alise makes it easy. She sleeps 4 to 5 hours at a stretch at night and is pretty much the most easy going baby of all time. Her cousins are delighted to have her mellow nature added to their little group. 

Welcome Baby Alise - and welcome to parenthood! We're here to support you every step of the way and give you all of Lily's hand-me-downs. =) Our girls will be the best dressed kiddos in town! XXOO

Healthy Boys are Happy Boys

Ah, the kiddos are growing and happy. Jamisen was so cute the other night when I was putting him to bed. I said, "Jamisen, do you know how much I love you? I really like how funny you are and how hard you work to learn potty training." And Jamisen replied, "No Mama, I did not know that; I did not know that."

Lily has started dancing. It is adorable, perfect and so giggle-worthy. She just wiggles from side to side and bobs her head with attitude. We have dance parties in the kitchen now - Mommy, Lily and Jamisen while Daddy looks on with some form of amusement and disbelief. 

We purchased some warm weather toys for the kiddos, including this shallow sprinkler wading system. We still need to monitor the kids when they're in it but it feels safer than a pool.\

Little Lily has started signing, barely. She can sign "more more" and "water". The rest of the time, she just says "yeah!" or bobs her head up and down in the universal 'yes' symbol. She does not do "all done" yet and she might never. It feels like she might skip sign language all together. Jamisen tries to help by signing for her and that remarkably gets better results than when Chris, Nanny McKenna or I do it.

Our garden continues to flourish with giant kale trees, corn, tomatoes, amazing squash, blueberries, and more. Our raspberries and blackberries aren't doing so great though so we may need to rip those out and replant them next year.

Jamisen loves to read. Lily is a little more difficult to keep in one place but we diligently try. Jamisen is a good sport about reading books that he long since graduated from. 

Jamisen is always my big garden helper; usually because it means he gets to use the scissors! He loves to eat the fruit fresh and always takes a bite or two of the greens. He usually spits them out but it's cute and supposedly, every taste will get him closer to appreciating and liking them. 

The deer are back this year. We have a Mama and her two babies. We chase them off but secretly, all love the little babies and feel bad running them off our land. After all, we sort of are encroaching on their ancestor's prior homes.

Grandma and Grandpa have been up a lot (more on why in another blog post) and in this picture, Lily was so late for her morning nap that she fell asleep in Grandpa's arms. So cute! Also, doesn't she look giant!?

Lily walks extremely well but she is quite opinionated on where she wants to walk. She'll just grab your hand and tug you until you go where she wants you to go. 

This was our reality until Grandpa built us another 'Standy Thing' for Lily to stand in. It works much better to have them on opposite ends of the counter eating and we've taken to eating our family dinners that way. It fits our lifestyle right now but I know that will change in the future when the kids are a little less active and a little less hands-on work for the parentals. Sometimes, I read during family dinners =)

We hosted a birthday party for our dear friend Oskar at the lake house. We were thrilled when Ava and her Mommy were able to visit. Jamisen is just as enamored as ever by Ava; his love has not at all diminished. 

Lily has started playing the toilet water which is very frustrating because it is a safety hazard and Jamisen never did it. So, training on that issue is a firm "NO!" and removing her quickly from the toilet.

At one point, we had 7 children in some stage of dress and undress playing in the water. It was chaos but it was fun chaos.

 When the kids were playing in the lake, Lily decided to make her own little lake out of a Tupperware container. #Adorable

We also had a play date with Sasha. We made healthy green popsicles (spinach, grape juice, grapes and apples) for the boys and they relished getting into the  process "helping".

See! I wasn't kidding about the kale trees! They are literally the size of Jamisen.

Little Lily LOVES showers. She still is small enough that Chris holds her for the showers and she loves the water and the extra attention. If you ask her, "Lily, do you want to take a shower?" she trots off to the shower at full speed. She understands *everything* even if she's not quite talking yet.

Jamisen is a big helper in the kitchen, always. He loves to mix, crack eggs and help out. It's great because generally whatever he helps out with, he loves to eat. A healthy boy is a happy boy!

Seven. We're Seven.

Jamisen was asked at summer camp who were the oldest people he knew. He said his Mommy and Daddy. He then was asked how old we are. We are apparently seven years old.

(Yes, I know this doesn't match the pictures. I'm sorry. There's not much I can do about that when the photos are so dang cute!) Jamisen loves his little tadpole, Sippy Sippy II, and I must say, this Sippy Sippy is much happier since he gets really great non-distilled water. He frolics and plays and is generally a delight to be around. Very polite, that little tadpole, very polite.

I asked Jamisen tonight the Four Questions:

What is your favorite color? Red and purple
What do you want to be when you grow up? Daddy
What do you dream about? Zebras and birds.
What is the meaning of life? (first answer) Salad (second answer) Family and quality.

The last time, for the meaning of life question, he said "I will tell you." Now we've progressed onto veggies as the meaning of life. I think that kid is onto something!

We had a great weekend last weekend with Grandma and Grandpa Faiola. Grandpa came up on the train and of course, the train was delayed by over and hour. Jamisen insisted (INSISTED!) on waiting at the train station with me while Chris took Lily home. And of course, then when the train came, an hour later, he stayed in my arms and did not go running to greet Grandpa. We chalked it up to being tired since it was 10 p.m. by that point.

We did get to spend time on the lake (thanks great weather). Clearly Jamisen and his Daddy loved the boat time.

And yes, my husband is a hottie (or quiche as the little tweens are calling it currently).

Chris and I took a little trip to California last week for  a friend's birthday party.

We stayed in a charming town, right by where my folks honeymooned. Ah, #smallworld. It was nice to get away and we are especially thankful to Grandma Faiola who stayed with the kiddos for four whole days while we enjoyed time with friends and danced the night away. =)

Lily remains the most charming child of all time. She, among the ENTIRE family (well, fine Grandpa Faiola escaped it too) did not come down with strep throat. And this strep throat is so powerful that it got one of my employees sick that only sat across a table from me! Clearly, she is not only blessed with a charming disposition but an immune system that doesn't stop.

She has learned to pick blueberries in the garden and is a cheery companion for harvest time.

Jamisen continues to challenge our boundaries in new and exciting ways daily. He generally spends most of his evenings in some shape of time out with brief good behavior breaks in between. To his credit, he is loving and kind much of the time but for some reason, his little sister is bringing out his devil horns. We have started changing our messaging; talking about him as a protector for his sister and our family as a tribe/pack/unit.

Lily does not yet turn heel and run when she sees Jamisen though we fear that day is coming. On the plus side, Jamisen loves to hug his sister (and really, hug, not just strangle-hug), is fiercely protective of her from his friends and asks where she is when she's gone to sleep. There is hope yet!

Parenting these two is a joyous roller coaster and we're thrilled to be on it, together.