My cheeks hurt...

From smiling at my little girl so much!! I got some great video of Spring smiling and chatting! Please ignore the cheesy mommy voice in the video... I can't help it. I believe it to be part of a complex series of hormonal changes associated with becoming a mother. These hormones activate the "cheesiness" center in the brain. With time, this area degenerates from "cheesy", to "not cool" or even "embarassing", though this subtle change may only be noticeable to the teenage offspring of the mother in question.

And how sweet is my little boy holding his sister while Daddy reads stories?!

Feeling hopeful and proud

I don't tend to talk politics much on this blog, but most of you that know us, know how we lean politically. I just wanted to say that for the first time in what feels like a long time, I am optimistic about the future of our country! Even if Obama can only live up to half of what people expect from him, he'll still be a great president. Today, I feel a bit less fear when I think about the country and environment that my children will inherit.

I really wish we could have been in DC today, but it really wouldn't have been feasible. It would have been so amazing to get to witness such an historical event. I can imagine the mood in the city was absolutely electric. I'm consoling myself that we at least we got a chance to see Obama when he was in Seattle. Even Spring was there, though we didn't know it yet!

Taken on November 4th after most of the voting had ended and an Obama victory looked definite. Maybe not the best pics, but we wanted to capture the moment!!

Squeaky clean!

Spring didn't enjoy her bath much last night, but as usual, Reed LOVED Spring's bath! Reed gets all excited and helps get Spring's bath supplies for us. He even asks excitedly, "Spring soapy night?" (We don't get Reed soapy every bath, so the nights we do, we call soapy nights.) Reed also loves Spring's naked baby time and massage, so much so that he has started insisting we give him a massage too. I wish somebody would give me a massage every night before bed!

Spring was definitely happy to get out of the bath. She absolutely LOVES it when people make eye contact with her (as I'm doing off camera), much more so than Reed did. She'll lock eyes with you and gaze and gaze and gaze. Grandma's departure yesterday was easily delayed by five minutes because Spring wouldn't break eye contact with her!


Just another fun picture.
"Psst, Spring, lean close and I'll tell you a secret. Our outfits don't actually match, Mommy just thinks they do!"

Bye bye goggy, hello boo-boo kick!

Some of our favorite baby words, have grown up. Reed used to call his blankie a goggy, his binkie a cah-key and his animals, minimohs (with the first i long, like mine). All those words have now evolved to more accurate pronunciations which is a little sad and exciting at the same time. However, Reed has added some new words to his vocabulary, some of them with cute pronunciations. For instance, his boo-boo kick might sound like a toddler accident, but in fact, it is a favorite outdoor toy... most of us would call it a bamboo stick. And in our house, we don't eat any sissy pancakes, oh no. Reed only eats mancakes!!

Laugh!

Spring laughed for the first time tonight! I was sitting on the couch and she was sitting in her bouncy seat in front of me. I had leaned forward to talk with her because she was being smiley and chatty. Reed decided that would be a great time to crawl up on my back and apparently Spring thought that was pretty funny because she gave a few wonderful belly laughs!!

Photo extravaganza!

Last October, we had a bunch of professional photos taken with my photographer friend, Kathryn. Some of me pregnant, some newborn pictures of Spring, and some pictures with all my immediate family. It's taken me a while to post these, but here are my favorites!











Bright eyes!

This one melts my mommy heart!

Asleep on Daddy's chest.

My handsome boy!


Having fun in the autumn leaves. I took pictures of Reed last year in the leaves. I think we're going to try to make an tradition out of it!

My brother had the brilliant idea to make a pile of leaves for Reed to play in!

Everything is funnier when you're on Daddy's shoulders!

All the women of the family, my mom, Gerry's mom, Spring and me.

All that modeling can wear a girl out!

Taken just a fraction of a second after Reed kissed Spring for the first time!

Just beautiful!

Catch up

It's been a while since I posted so it's time I caught up a little!! I hope you all had a wonderful New Year celebration. We stayed up late enough to celebrate 2009 coming to the east coast time zone and central time zone, but we were in bed by the time 2009 hit the mountain and pacific time zones. Spring did wake me up just after midnight for a little snack; that's as close as I come to staying up late these days!

A few days into 2009 we ventured to Pacific Beach to spend some time with our friends Dave and Sarah and their son, Robbie. The trip proved a little trying with two little ones to take care of, but we had fun all the same and it was great to see our friends! The pictures in my previous post are all from Pacific Beach. Sadly, that was the only picture we took of Spring there. I was behind the camera most of the time and I had her on my chest in the wrap, and that just doesn't make for good pictures.

My new favorite video of Reed came while we were at the beach. Who, but a northwest native toddler would be so excited about razor clam digging. Reed went on his first razor clam dig when he was only a few months old, so I guess it's in his blood!

What's the only thing harder than getting a good picture of an active toddler? Getting a picture of two active toddlers! The boys had tons of fun jumping on the beds together. :-)

"Here Robbie, if you're going to sleep, you need all the stuffed animals!"

And while we were in Pacific Beach, Reed finally cut one of his bottom eye teeth! It's a tooth that, according to the charts I found, is supposed to come in when a baby is 7 months old... Reed starting teething late, but jeez, this tooth was a year and a half late!! I was starting to think it might not be there at all!

And here are some more recent pictures.

Spring, enjoying naked baby time (and yes, we sing the naked baby time song for her!)

I know the picture is a bit dark, but here's Spring, standing (supporting most of her weight) on Daddy's chest.

Here's one of Reed's late arrival presents and perhaps his favorite. It's a ukulele, or as Reed calls it, a bitar (like guitar).

All the really cool firemen wear their hat backwards like this!

Ask...

And you shall receive! :-) I'll have more to say later, but Grandma Lisa requested some pictures, so I thought I'd hurry and post those for now.