ONE

I can't believe it has been a year already. Lindsay is amazing! I love watching her figure things out and am amazed at how much she understands what is going on around her. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New shoes to explore outside. Pure joy.

New outfit from Grandma and Grandpa Waite

Puppy from Grandma and Grandpa Larson (with the 'O' face that we see a lot right now)

Princess cupcakes

the 'O' face again

New favorite, climbing as high as she can get and standing.

She walks

Bubbles...

We'll work on the bubbles, but she sure is cute!

The Lindsayfish

So Lindsay and I took swimming lessons. For myriad reasons, but mostly to make sure I'm

 comfortable going into the water with her and able to teach her until she can take real lessons when she's 3, and also because it was something fun to do with her. Here are a couple of pictures from our last day.

 

 Getting ready to go into the water...

 

She'll even try to blow bubbles, something to keep working on.

  

Kick kick kick!

  

 She's not upset, just excited and yelling about being in the water.

I think she's going to miss going swimming every day...

Eight Months

It's crazy to think that Lindsay is eight months old. It's definitely been a wild eight months.

She now weighs over 18 pounds and loves to eat anything I put in front of her and a lot that she finds on her own.

She has one tooth all the way in and its neighbor just starting to poke through.

She crawls and pulls herself up to standing on just about anything she can grab on to. 

Busy Day

Lindsay had a very busy day today. This afternoon she mastered sitting up from being on her stomach.

Tonight, while getting ready for bed she started moving forward.

I guess nothing is safe from the monster now.

Easter

Master Suite

We started with a green wall in the master bedroom.

  

 

 And changed it to a dark red.

 The master closet when we bought it.

 And after being recarpeted and some of our clothes added.

Living Room

 Another fire engine red wall.  We got rid of the bright red and painted the big wall a nice gray green to calm things down while still adding color. I will update the posts when I get some pictures taken with all of the furniture in place.

Dining Room

We started out with a fire engine red dining room wall. I'm not anti-red, but it was a little much, especially with the red bulbs in the chandelier.

Obviously we aren't finished here, since a dining room generally has a table of sorts. After years of tiny apartments, that is something that we must acquire.

Permanent

Well, permanent as far as we no longer flit from apartment to apartment paying rent to whomever will take our money. Now we just pay a mortgage to the evil mortgage company. But hey, we finally have some space, and visitors no longer have to sleep on the balcony. We kept the main color the same throughout the house, but repainted, recarpeted the upstairs and bought a whole suite of appliances (courtesy of the previous owner who took every last one, including the air conditioner).

Things to look forward to and lesson learned

So early this afternoon Chris called me from work. He told me he would be home around 4, and asked if I wanted to go for a walk with the little monster (she's a cute monster that we love) when he got home. So after I hung up, I turned to said monster in her swing, and told her that when dad got home we were going to go for a walk. She smiled and cooed (like she usually does when I talk to her) and kicked her feet.

Around 2 I fed the monster, and changed her diaper and as I went to put her in her swing again, mentioned to her again that when dad got home we were going to go for a walk. Again, smile, coo, and kick. She then proceeded to fall asleep in her swing, as content as can be.

Around 4, Chris comes in the door and the monster begins to stir and stretch. She wakes up and starts to cry. I pick her up to calm her down while Chris gets changed and she still screams. I bounce for a few minutes and she still screams. I finally lay her down on a blanket as me holding her is obviously not helping. She screams louder and more vigorously. I pick her back up and see if maybe dad can calm her down. She settles down for a minute and then continues to scream. I get her seat and strap her in, and of course she screams louder. Chris gets the stroller and takes it outside while I get my shoes on. I finally pick up her seat and walk toward the door. Instantly, the screaming stops. For the next half hour, not a peep as the monster looks wide-eyed at everything as we walk.

Common sense shouts at me that there is no way she really knew what was going on. Fear tells me that she knows too much.

Things to look forward to? 2-3 years from now should be fun.

Lesson learned? Never, ever, ever, ever promise/threaten what I can't deliver.

Blessing

Lindsay is definitely a blessing in our lives. We were also blessed over the holidays to have each of our entire families here all together. It was so good to see everyone and I think everyone was excited to see Lindsay.

Chris blessed her on January 1 (which we'll always remember because it's her uncle's birthday). We got a couple of pictures after church.

We didn't go the traditional route with a big fancy dress, but I think this dress is especially cute on her.

We love our little piece of wonderful!

Why I am scared for 2 months from now

She's only 4 weeks old. She's been able to move her head freely since birth, and has, to quote the doctors, "very good muscle tone." She loves to try to push herself up with her legs and experiments with motor skills all the time (she's pretty good at reinserting the pacifier with her arms/hands if she drops/intentionally removes it).

Something tells me she's kinda already figured out the steps to crawling and we're only waiting for the inevitable.

CAL

A month already

It's hard to believe that 4 weeks ago we welcomed little Lindsay into our lives...I was told yesterday that she looks less like an alien now...but she still has chicken arms and legs. She definitely gets cuter every day. It also helps that she sleeps longer and screams less...

Lindsay Marie

So...for all who haven't seen her, here are some pictures of our new little love...

Project for the little girl

So I wanted to make a blanket or something for the little one that will be here soon, but just hadn't figured out what to do yet. Then, Chris bought me a serger and a new sewing machine for my birthday/Christmas, and then I really needed to make something. So I went to the fabric store yesterday without a clue as to what I was actually looking for. I ended up with the following to make a blanket for her. I cut the pieces out last night and came up with a pattern.Then today I pieced them all together (I felt very much like my Great-Grandma Waite who made a quilt a week and we all had baby blankets from her).
Here's a close up of the fabrics I was using. (Also proof that I am not a expert seamstress or quilter, as not many of the corners line up exactly.) The blue is a flannel backed satin, the green is a fleecy bumpy fabric and the polka dot is a cotton calico. The back will be a light pink flannel to make it soft and cozy. I'll post more pictures as I progress. I also bought some fun fabric to make some burp cloths, When I get those made I'll post those too.

Birthdays....

Birthdays are always interesting, not because of anything in particular, just interesting. In years past, we have spent many birthdays (and celebrations of birthdays) at one of our favorite places, Disneyland. It is always a fun place to celebrate and we get to celebrate our anniversary there too. Last year, because we didn't know how much longer we would be in SoCal, we let our passes expire. It was really kind of a sad day.

Now, we are permanent SoCal residents, but because of the baby on the way it doesn't make much sense to renew our passes yet. (So not worth it if I can't ride all of the fun rides).

So needless to say, this year our birthdays were not spent at the happiest place on earth. Instead we have spent the majority of our time and effort looking for a house to buy. This has been a very exhausting and sometimes discouraging road. But we keep trudging along...through all of the places that you have to drag yourself through before the right house comes along.

And last night, after seeing two terrible properties, Chris and I could not go to sleep because we were laughing too hard about nothing in particular. I am grateful that through everything we still are able to laugh at crazy things, knowing that in the end, the Lord will provide the right house at the right time and everything will work out in the best possible way for us.

And I have to hope that the right time will be before this little girl has her birthday.

And the flavor is...

Pink!

And no, she does not have a name yet. We've got a short list, but have yet to finalize one. We've still got time right? And yes, we do realize that our little girl will be here before we know it. And hopefully we'll have a house to bring her home to.

If at first you don't succeed...

So occasionally I have suffered from leg cramps when I first wake up or while I am sleeping. The solution is simple, get out of bed, put pressure on the leg that is cramping to stretch the muscle out. Then get back into bed and or get up and get going.
Saturday, however was a different story. Envision if you will the following...
My alarm went off at a nice time for a Saturday (5:45 am). I turned my alarm off, stretched, and instantaneously both calves seized. I clambered out of bed to stretch them out and make the cramps go away in rapid fashion. BAD idea. Knotted calf muscles don't support very much weight...especially when both legs are cramped. Crap. Down I go. Onto my knees. Only problem? Legs are still excruciatingly painful. I hear Chris pop up out of bed wondering what in the world is going on. Bad idea #2. Try to stand up again. Crap. Down I go. Again. The other way onto my backside.
Chris: What is going on? Are you okay?
Me(in tears): yeah...my legs cramped...both of them...I fell over...twice...
Chris: do me a favor...don't stand up again...
Me(still in tears, but laughing as I picture in my mind's eye what has just happened): okay
I proceed to just lay on the floor laughing and crying and laughing some more. I finally crawled back into bed (I needed a few more minutes at this point) and reset my alarm to make sure I got up in time to get to the temple. Three days later I still can't stand on my tip toes without feeling like I've done a million stairs and laugh out loud every time I think about it...
Lesson? Don't point your toes when you stretch your legs, it doesn't end well. Ever.