Look here, please, but with caution.

I'm going to slap a bunch of pictures up right now and ask you to please try to breathe as you browse them. They're awful. I hope they inspire within you an understanding as to why, for so long, I've been embarrassed to tell people that this is the house I live in, even though I love it for its interior. And also why I use the phrase, "We're the sixth house on the left, the white-trashy blue one with paint missing," when telling people how to find my house.

Okay, deep breath, folks. Here goes. You should know, though, that this is pretty much how the house looked when we moved in, made only slightly worse when Nate did some pressure washing and scraping to prep the house for painting. He caulked all over, which actually made an improvement to the appearance (believe it or not) - slight as that improvement might have been, I'm clinging to it.

This is the back deck (we will be staining the deck).

This is one of the attic windows (Nate's desk sits behind it).

This is Hazel's room, at least the two West-facing windows. My desk sits in the attic window above her room, and you can see one of the basement windows just below hers. That's the breezeway on the right, through which you can actually spot some green from the front yard.

And this is the South-facing window looking into her room; it looks onto the breezeway which runs between the house and that garage. This picture is of the siding just above her window.

These pictures are of the kitchen windows. This first one is of the bit of window that faces South. The next is of the stretch of windows that faces East. The third picture is of the siding above the South-facing window. Isn't my house lovely?

Here is our front porch. The door will be painted black, and the porch, stairs, and foundation will all be painted a nice, dark accent color. It's going to look simply stunning.

And here is the North-facing side of the house. The window to the left is our front living room, and the window to the right is our family room.

This house could be considered totally chaotic. Some of the slap-togetherness of the exterior drives me crazy, and I'm hoping that fresh paint will disguise some of its strangeness.

Okay, next post will be an update of the painting process, so hold your horses.

An Update.

Nate's been painting, and I'll get to that in a moment (or at least when I find the pictures on his computer...), but to start here's a [terrible] picture of my 33 week belly. This is the best I can do when it has to be a self-portrait. Nate was working just outside the bathroom window while I was taking pictures of my belly and finally he tapped on the glass.

"What's the flashing?" was his muffled question through the two layers of plastic and tape and the glass.

"Nothing," I lied. I didn't want him to know what I was doing. It was a little embarrassing at the time. I'm not so shy about it right in this moment, which is why you're seeing one of the poor results of my personal photo shoot.

This day in particular had been quite eventful! Let me break it down for you.

This is how Hazel spent a chunk of her day. She was in glorious heaven, splashing away! When she woke up from her nap, I stripped her down and slathered sunscreen all over her super white skin and then had her step into her Little Swimmers diaper. And then I had her step out of it, turned it around, and had her step back in. And then I had her step out of it, turned it around, and then had her step back in again. I'm pretty sure it was on backwards at that point, but after one look at her annoyed little face I wasn't going to switch it around again.

I dressed her in her swimsuit, which I had to explain several times since she'd never worn it before. I talked about eating lunch and then playing in the pool. She had no idea what "the pool" was (except that it could almost sound like "poop," which is one of her favorite words), but she understood the concept of going outside to play. She ate faster than I've ever seen her eat a meal before; after every bite she checked to make sure we were still going outside by asking, "Ou'si'? Poo'?" As she neared finishing her banana, I watched her use both hands to shovel the last few pieces into her mouth; she picked up her plate and handed it to me, saying with a mouth fit to burst, "All done!" And then outside we went.

She was so excited by the water and all the trees, birds, cars, bicycles, grass, bushes, clouds, carpenter ants...Everything brought a thrill with it. I think the most exciting thing, though, was the fact that I let her hold her bubbles and bubble wand. Those are usually restricted, and so when it came time to get out of the pool, she wouldn't let go.

A bath followed pool-time. Her sunscreen is pretty thick and mineral-ly, so I couldn't even think of not bathing her after putting on a good, thick layer all over her little body. She clung to her bubble bottle and bubble wand all through the undressing. She hollered when I made her pull her fist and bubbles through her bathing suit strap - I'm sure she thought I'd be taking it away at any second.

She made it through her bath (I swiped the bubbles and wand when she was distracted by her rubber ducky and shampoo) in fair spirits. She was becoming quite tired of the water by the time we finished with her bath. I got her out of the tub (which is her baby tub; it sits inside our big bathtub - there's a drainage issue with the bathtub right now, so it is full of grime and residue from the pipe system...so gross, and an obvious reason why she still uses her baby tub), dried her off, and dressed her for bed, complete with socks and shoes so she could run around the house until bedtime without getting her feet dirty again.

I went into the kitchen to make her bottle, with her tottering along behind me. She's free to wander through most of the rooms in the house for the most part; I call out her name every 30 seconds or so just to check on where she's at and find out what she's up to. If she doesn't answer back, I go looking for her.

Well, she didn't answer back at one point so I went running to find her. My house is small, so two steps through the kitchen I was in the hallway looking directly into the bathroom. What did I see? Her little feet sticking out from the bathtub, parallel to the floor. As I watched, they shot upward, meaning that she was falling into the bathtub. It all happened so fast: the realization that for the first time in her little life I hadn't emptied the baby tub of its water, the knowledge that the big tub was still full because it drains at a snail's pace, the fact that she was probably face-first in the water of her bathtub...

Her little feet kicked and twisted so that before I was even in the bathroom she was sitting upright in her tub. Her face and the front bit of her hair were wet again, so I assumed she'd gone under for a moment, but she was okay. I saw that in a split second. After my panic took its leave, I started laughing like crazy. She looked a little put-out by my laughter, but I grabbed the camera and took a few pictures. She wouldn't look at me, so this is the best I could get.

What was left to do but grab another towel and get her ready for bed again? And so that's what happened. Here's a picture just after getting dressed for bed for the second time.

I'm pretty lucky that nothing seriously bad happened. It could have been a lot worse than it turned out to be, and I know that that's by the grace of God!

She's a funny little munchkin! She's adding a crazy number of words to her vocabulary right now, most recently pizza, pancakes, and broccoli. I think she's teething again; her refusal to eat much of anything for several days in a row seemed to indicate as much, but last night she ate two whole pieces of pizza and then this morning she ate three kiddo sized pancakes.

Now I'm off to search Nate's computer for painting pictures. The man has been hard at work! Our house looks so much better!

A funny thing happened today.

Mom had Hazel for most of the day, which allowed me to see Peggy (more on that in a minute), mow another chunk of our field of a yard, and get some work done. I picked up Hazel from Mom's at about 4:30pm. Tutu was worn out, completely (apparently Hazel drug her along on several walks around the property and down the driveway), and when the screen door swung open, Hazel trotted out on the front step. She pointed out a ball, asked me for help off the stoop, and then practically sprinted to the back passenger door on my Volvo. She tried to open the door and when she couldn't she looked at me and said, "Seat!" She obviously really wanted into her carseat. I plopped her in and buckled her and she immediately said, "Home? Play?" I've never known her to beg to go anywhere, let alone if that means leaving Poppa and Tutu's house. I had to laugh.

So I saw Peggy today; the appointment went well. I'm measuring  33 weeks, so just a little ahead. I see the surgeon in two weeks (Peggy will be on vacation so it's a good time to consult with Dr. N.), Peggy two weeks after that (which will be my 36th week), and then I'll see her in my 37th and 38th weeks. I'm not entirely sure why I'm seeing her in my 38th week - it'll be the day before the c-section.

I confirmed with her the c-section date. She scheduled the cesarean for the 6th of August, so we're definitely on the books now.

When Peggy was checking the babe's heartbeat, it was a little slow. Peggy looked at me a bit askance and said, "Hmm, I don't think Mom ate breakfast." The kid's heartrate gave me away! Speaking of food, I'm starving. I should eat. In a minute.

My Uncle Seth brought over a child-sized dresser for Hazel not too long ago, so I stuck that in the nursery today. It's getting a bit cramped in there with all the "necessary" pieces of furniture! I don't know, it might be best to take the twin bed out for now. I like the idea of a guest bed, but it's taking up a lot of room at the moment. If we took it out, it would open up a huge amount of space, allowing both cribs to fit comfortably rather than making it all a tight squeeze. (Can you believe it, this is the first I've thought of removing the guest bed. Oh, and no one has ever slept in it since we've moved here.) Once I get all the furniture situated, I need to find a way to decorate the plaster walls. I have all the banners and pictures I want to use, but I'm a bit clueless as to how to best mount them on the walls. I can hardly wait to get the room finished, though! I'm seriously excited...

To be honest, this pregnancy has been something of a conundrum for me. Sometimes I feel wonderful, absolutely free to do what I like when I like, seeing as I'm not on bedrest this time around. Other times I feel incredibly restricted simply because I'm pregnant. There are things this house needs that I can't do because of the pregnancy. For example: I'd love to be able to deal with the ongoing ant issue myself rather than bothering Nate with the chore when he already has too much on his plate, but, as a pregnant lady, I can't use the chemical we bought; I'd like to stain our deck, but again it's a chemical issue; I'd like to take care of the cat litter, but again...So I've resorted to helping Nate by mowing our yard. By hand. It's okay, I checked with Peggy. The front yard isn't horrible, but the back is a nightmare. I did a small patch today and had to stop. Maybe I'll get to it tomorrow...We'll see. Dumping the grass cuttings is more of an issue than the actual mowing, simply because we dump the cuttings in the field. The grass in the field gives me hives, so you can see the problem there. My arms were covered by the time I finished today. I may be too much of a wimp to take mowing on again tomorrow - I'd rather not deal with the hives again.

Little munchkin...

Nate's family took a little bit of a road trip the other weekend (and it included Nate and I) to see Tom Petty in concert in George, Washington (yes, the comma is necessary here). Mom and Dad watched Hazel all day Friday and overnight until Saturday afternoon. Apparently Hazel learned to put on her rain boots while at Poppa and Tutu's! Whenever she wanted to wander outside she'd race over to her boots and put them on. I wish I could have seen it! This is the picture Mom sent me...

The poor child. After sleeping over at Poppa and Tutu's, she had probably one night out of seven that she went to bed at a normal time and slept the night through. We kept her up too late too often, just with get-togethers and such. These last few nights seem to be better - she's been going down on time and sleeping through the night. In fact, this morning I never woke up to her chatter. I shot out of bed at 10am feeling like a terrible mom. When I went into her room she was standing in her crib staring at the fan. We then launched into a conversation about "fan" versus "space heater." She was fine, but I still feel bad about how late I woke up this morning.

We have church tonight, so her bedtime will be disrupted again, but hopefully the next few days will be much more simple, routine wise.

I'm 32-ish weeks pregnant now, which is crazy. I can't believe this kid is coming in like 6 weeks! The nursery is a bit of a disaster - I need to seriously get down to business and get that room ready for the kid to get here. Do I feel ready, emotionally and such? Um, not really. My Grandpa keeps telling me, "If one kid takes all your time, then there's not much left that the second one can take." I guess that's supposed to make me feel better! He laughs every time he says it...

I really look forward to having a new little baby around, someone to enjoy and get to know as a totally new person, but I'm not eager to deal with the lack of sleep this new person will bring with her. I struggled with a huge hormone surge after Hazel was born, so I was in a bad, bad emotional state for about two weeks, until I discovered my homeopathic called "Blu." I have some in my medicine cabinet now, so I think that that will really aid in dealing with the ups and downs of post labor hormones. I think that just going into this delivery with eyes wide open will help me deal with things as they come, like lack of sleep, hormone surges, potential breastfeeding issues, etc. I'll be ready when she comes...hopefully!

Couponing accomplishment!

So I've been testing the waters of this thing called couponing. Really truly, it's a total bear. I'm not good at it so I find little satisfaction in shopping.

But my experience on Saturday brought me a measure of joy, I must admit. While Hazel was napping, I called several stores to price their Huggies Little Movers diapers (size 4). Between Safeway, Fred Meyer, Albertsons, Babies R Us, and Rite Aid, I found that the best deal was at Rite Aid. A pack of 27 diapers was on sale from $11.99 down to $8.99. I had several coupons for $3.00 off one pack of diapers, which would take the price down to $5.99.

But the good news didn't stop there. Rite Aid has a promotion now where (on qualifying items) I can get a $2.00 rebate per package of diapers when I submit my receipt information online. Oh, and once I buy five packages of Huggies diapers, I get the sixth package free! So, between the rebates and the five packages of purchased diapers, I get two packages of diapers for free, in essence!

When I got to Rite Aid, I noticed that there were also $1.00 coupons attached to the receipts of certain items I planned on buying. I ended up with a wonderful cashier who allowed me to do several different transactions so I used three $1.00 off coupons in the store. I bought three packages of diapers and two containers of wipes (72 count) in such a way that I was incredibly proud of myself. I boasted about my purchases to Nate later that night!

And so that you don't feel as if you've totally wasted your time visiting my blog, here's a picture of my belly (if you haven't already caught it on Facebook). I was 31.5 weeks pregnant when I used Photo Booth to snap this picture. I stuck Hazel in Nate's chair to contain her, but she noticed herself on the computer screen and started grinning. This is what I ended up with...

I'm 32 weeks today, or starting my 8th month of pregnancy. We're pretty excited! I see midwife Peggy on Thursday for one of my last appointments before the c-section. I'll see her at 32 weeks, 34 weeks, 36 weeks, and then the c-section is during our 38th week, so I'm not sure if I'll have an appointment with her just before the c-section or if we'll just go on and check in at the hospital.

Okay, that's all for now. More pictures soon, I swear!

I [heart] consigning.

We've been blessed by living close to both sets of parents; we're pretty darn lucky that they like us and enjoy watching Hazel on occasion.

Nate's parents allowed us to drop her off at their house on Sunday so that he and I could get some things done around our place, namely mowing the field we call our yard and caulking the house. Since Nate had to borrow his parents' riding mower, he took Hazel over to drop her off. Stephen snapped these pictures with his iPhone, and I love them all.

I am absolutely in love with Hazel's little dress in these pictures. I've been hunting for plain onesies for her to use this summer, but I'm having just about zero luck. We visited our favorite consignment store in Gresham on Friday but they didn't have any onesies - everything I find seems to have some logo or design on it, and I really just need simple and plain for her to wear under dresses and sweaters.

Our consignment store has two locations, so on Saturday Hazel and I dropped by their store on 122nd and Glisan. Oh it was wonderful! I found so many cute things for both Hazel and Baby Girl #2. I had a good chunk of credit with the store, so I narrowed down my "likes" and made my purchase.

I found another pair of jeans for Miss B. - she was given one pair in size 18 months, so I wanted another pair to alternate with - and this dress she's wearing in the pictures. There are two brands that I can't pass up when I find them: Janie & Jack and Baby Place (but only footed sleepers have caught my attention from that store; I like their stuff, but I have a thing for the comfort of their jammies). The dress is Janie & Jack and it cost me $6.75 resale. I guarantee it sold for between $30 and $40 when it was new.

When Hazel was about 2 months old a lady from church was giving away about four bins of baby clothes that her little girl had grown out of recently. I drove to her house and she let me take whatever I wanted. Turns out the mother-in-law was pretty wealthy and loved to buy fancy shmanzy baby clothes for the little girl, which is how I discovered Janie & Jack. The mom-in-law must have purchased the entire Spring line when the little girl was born. As Hazel has gotten bigger, the Janie & Jack clothes we were initially given have begun to thin out; at this point, she has a two sweaters, a shirt, a jogging outfit, a hooded jacket, and floral pants. I've purchased a spaghetti strap romper and this dress for summer.

I almost put the dress back on the rack when I found it at the consignment store. I checked the label and even then still wondered if I like it enough to buy it for Hazel. And then I held it up to her little body. Sold. Totally. Why did I ever doubt its cuteness? It has a Western feel with it's ruffles and plaid and collar and pearl buttons and chest pockets...I put her in pink footless tights and a white long-sleeved onesie for church on Sunday. She was adorable wearing it to nursery!

I'll never say no to anything from Janie & Jack, just so every knows.

By the way, I'm pregnant.

So last Friday night, I put Hazel to bed and left the house around 8:30pm to do some grocery store pricing. I had some coupons that I was looking forward to using and I wanted to figure out who had the best prices between Albertsons and Safeway before dragging Hazel to four stores with me the next morning.

One of the coupons I was most excited to use was one for Coffee-mate hazelnut creamer. It was $1 off, and I knew that Albertsons was coming out with a coupon that would double my one dollar, so I'd get two bucks off the store price. I found that Albertsons had both the 16oz. and 32oz. sizes of creamer (for some reason I can usually only find the 32oz. size)...and they were on sale. I would have to wait until Sunday to actually purchase the creamer, but it would end up costing me $.29 - ACK!

When I put together grocery shopping lists these days, I focus on what will feed Hazel lunch and provide dinner for Nate and I. Breakfast is pretty simple most days, and lunch for myself, well, let's not talk about that. I eat what's available (which speaks to the annoying extra pounds right now).

Because I have to focus on dinners and Hazel's lunch, my budget doesn't accommodate too many "pleasures" - Nate still gets his wine (the man works too hard not to be able to wind down at night) and coffee, but I've been by-passing some of the things I like best, creamer being one of those things that's fallen by the wayside. Needless to say, I was STOKED when I figured out I'd only have to pay $.29 for creamer!

Yesterday, when I picked Hazel up from Nate's parents' house, Karen reminded me that we still had a box of freezer items in their chest freezer. [This might seem like a tangent, but bear with me.] When Rae Ann moved to Baltimore, she unloaded an incredible amount of freezer food on us - and it's been amazingly long-lasting and wonderful. I should have asked for help pulling the box out of the bottom of the freezer; it had to weigh at least 60 pounds...

Even though my grocery budget has shrunk considerably the last six months, since being married to Nate I've always had one and worked within it. So last year during summer, when I wanted to make jam, I only made raspberry (with a few jars of marionberry jam also) - we couldn't buy strawberries to make my fave jam at the time, so I only made Nate's die-hard favorite.

I hefted that 60-pound box out of the chest freezer because I had to bring some reality to my soaring hopes: I had spotted three huge jars of strawberry jam tucked into it. I swear to you, this year's Christmas was yesterday. I hope you didn't miss it.

Whenever I woke up during the night last night, I would think fondly of the hazelnut creamer and raspberry jam waiting for me when it was time to get up. Most mornings I wake up when Hazel cries out and then I give her a little time to truly wake up (she's a bear otherwise). This morning I raced into her room as soon as I heard her and whisked her off to the kitchen for breakfast. Nate came down to say good morning (his office is upstairs in the attic if you didn't know...) while I was feeding the cat and dog and getting Hazel's breakfast made.

I popped my English muffin in the toaster and pulled the strawberry jam out of the fridge. Next I checked the coffee pot and there was about 3oz. of coffee left in it. I balked at that for a split second deep inside, but poured my cup anyway. I grabbed the creamer from the fridge and sensed a problem: It felt light. Like, not new. I opened the lid and there was no foil safety seal. I hollered my displeasure, thinking I had walked out of Albertsons with an opened creamer.

But in the off-chance that that's not what had happened, I asked Nate if he'd had any.

He had.

I wanted to cry.

Why?

Because I'm pregnant and that's what I do these days.

It's totally unreasonable, but I felt so disappointed. I had so anticipated the thought of opening that bottle for the first time and glorying in it's wonderfulness (and newness...and mine-ness). I didn't say anything to Nate about my feelings, though, but I did make sure he wasn't just teasing me, that he had in fact had some and that I had not left the store with an opened container.

Two minutes later I was praying that I would quit thinking about how disappointed I was. Nate was still talking about how much he'd also looked forward to having some of the creamer and how much he'd enjoyed it while drinking his coffee this morning, so I said if I'd known he liked it that much I would have bought the bigger bottle (the $.29 came from my change jar; the $2+ it would have cost to get the bigger bottle would have been supplied by my Mary Kay account -  you can understand why I went with the smaller size; plus, it's a pleasure not a staple). He said something along the lines, "Well the creamer is for both of us..." and I interrupted him, overcome by emotions.

"Is it?"

"Well, yeah!" he said with a small smile and a laugh, thinking I was kidding.

"Is it?" I said again with tears in my eyes and disappointment evident in my entire body.

"Oh..." he said and he grabbed me in a huge hug. He felt so bad. I told him I was happy to share with him, it's just that sometimes it's frustrating when there's no small pleasure that's just mine. He has his wine, and I'm jealous of the fact that it's his and his only. Whatever I bring home from the store, I usually assume someone else will be eating, either besides me altogether or in addition to me. Hazel wants everything I have, which is the nature of the parent/child relationship, so I can't escape that; Nate likes what I like, so nothing is sacred there either.

I will admit I cried this morning over my creamer. Sometimes these pregnancy hormones are all-consuming. At least I have a wonderful family to melt down in front of on those occasions. [Oh how I'd love to insert "rare" into that last thought...]

He gets it now...I think.

I have a white board by the back door that I write my life on. Nate looks at it very rarely (or so it seems). Yesterday he was putting on his shoes and started muttering.

"Glencoe? What's Glencoe? Wait...Glucose? 8:45, Peggy at 9:30. Huh?"

"Glucose. You know, the test I have to take to make sure I don't have gestational diabetes."

"ALREADY? Why?"

"Because we're in our third trimester..."

"That's ridiculous! Holy crap, you're having that baby soon!"

By this time I'm laughing pretty hard, but I had to ask...
 "What's the big deal with the glucose test?"

"Well, the last time you took your glucose test, you had Hazel, like, the next day."

(Which isn't true at all, but it gave me good insight into his thinking.)

You know, I think Nate gets it now: This kid is coming, whether or not we're ready!

I feel like it's my birthday...

Hazel is 18 months old today, and I can hardly keep from telling everyone I see.

Oh, and now she says her name! I thought it was an accident the first time, but when I show her a family picture and ask her who each person is, she says, "Dadda, Momma, Hazie." It kills me every time! She's a freakin' genius, I'm just saying.

Did I post this picture before? I can't remember...It's from my Dad's birthday dinner in March. He decided to invite some family to dinner at Apizza Scholls (which is where I took Nate for his birthday in January). We devoured like 5 pizzas, I think.

Following that, my uncle took us to a nearby police station where his bomb unit stuff is stored. We climbed through one of his trucks, amazed at the equipment. Before I knew it, Dad was trying on a bomb suit! It was incredibly heavy, but he wore it well!

It was all pretty awesome, and it was an experience we could never pass up.

Okay, this picture is from December. I want you to take note of the intensity on Hazel's face. She knew her meal was coming and she was practically climbing out of her chair to get at it. Poor, impatient, starving thing. Just look at her face - she's totally waning away.

Oh yeah, all these pictures are from my cell phone. They really stink, quality-wise.

I can't remember if I posted this picture either. It's worth doing it again, just look at all the food! One of our favorite restaurants in Cannon Beach is Ecola Seafood. We really enjoy splitting an order of clam strips and fish and chips. They make the most wonderful cocktail sauce!

This last trip, though, turned out poorly: Nate put in our order and paid while I saved us seats. The little plate of clam strips cost $8, which we've never paid before. Usually we pay $4. Sad to say, we won't be buying them again, although they are so totally worth it!

Here's another picture I can't remember if I posted (wow, I'm on a roll). It's Hazel's last day at Neurotherapeutics in Oregon City. That's the building behind our heads.

It's been nice to have those two Thursdays a month free again. We're down to therapy once a month...And even then I'm not sure one could call it "therapy." It's more of just play time. In fact, the last time Chris came over, he sat and talked with me about dog training. Hazel had to get his attention by shoving a book into his hands so that he would read to her. We see him again in a few weeks and then not again for probably another 6 weeks, perhaps longer.

This last picture is from Super Bowl Sunday. We spent the day with Nate's family, eating too much and watching a lot of TV on a ridiculously huge flatscreen. Hazel tottered around in the family room, followed closely by Karen - meanwhile, I fell asleep on the couch. Hah! I'm blessed!

Nate took the opportunity to feed Hazel, and so the above is the picture I got. She's an escape artist, that girl.

Now I'm done with my delinquent postings. Sorry to inundate you!

Baby Belly, brought to you by Baby Girl Banks #2

[About 24 weeks, so an older picture. And don't mind the food on my shirt.]

Sunshine on my shoulder makes me happy!

I love the sun! I also love rain, clouds, storms, wind...all of the elements that Fall and Winter in the Pacific Northwest bring, but there's something to be said about an honestly sunny, 70 degree day. Do you know what I mean about "honestly sunny"? If you've spent any time in the NW, you should. We get a lot of faux sunny days, when the sun is there, but it's a tease. It peeks out from behind a cloud long enough for you to frantically grab everything within arm's reach (including your kid), dash out your door to your car, and hurry to the park, when it suddenly makes a smooth glissade behind another cloud, disappearing for good. The temperature drops 5 degrees, you have no fun at the park, and everyone heads home totally disappointed and still seriously lacking in vitamin D.

Yesterday was not at all like that: The sun came out and it stayed that way ALL DAY. It was marvelous! Mom treated Hazel and I to the zoo, and I have to admit that I was the most excited about this trip. I love going to the zoo. Hands down, I feel it's the best way to spend a warm day outside.

Our timing for leaving the Clackamas area all came down to Hazel and her naps. She's been falling asleep as soon as I stick her in her crib for the last week (which has been wonderful), but yesterday she went back to her old routine and played for about an hour before succumbing to sleep. That threw us off a bit. We finally made it out of the house around 2pm. When we arrived at the zoo, the parking lot was packed and "Lots Full" signs were up everywhere. It was afternoon nap time, though, for most kids, so I felt sure the zoo would be emptying out steadily.

Hazel recognized animals from her books, of course, and could make their sounds, but she mostly enjoyed people watching and walking everywhere on her own. She finally asked to be put back in her stroller about half way through our walk, just wanting to take a break for a few minutes. She walked with gusto and charmed everyone! Quite a few other moms kept sighing, "OHH" whenever Hazel tottered by. My heart swelled every time...

There was a nice breeze out and the zoo paths offered plenty of shade, but it was still nice enough for Hazel to wear a light cotton spring dress and sunscreen. I love her sunscreen but it does get greasy fast. Her hair was so nasty across her forehead! It will look like she's sweating profusely in some of these pictures, but she's not, I promise.

As the day progressed, I saw more and more of her roseola spots. Her little personality was alive and kicking so I didn't feel like she was out of it due to not feeling very well, but I kept my eye on the spots. I guess I should have done my research before leaving for the zoo/sunshine: Is roseola made worse by the sun? She didn't have a fever at all yesterday and her spots are nearly gone today, thank God. (By the way, the picture shows my 26.5 week pregnant belly. I am constantly surprised at how quickly time is passing! This kid will be here with us in just about 11 weeks. Oh, and I'll be 27 weeks on Monday, which is when we started having to monitor Hazel's health closely during my pregnancy with her. If we can make it through the next few weeks without any serious scares, I'll be incredibly grateful. In fact, God, please let's just make it straight through to the end of this pregnancy without any surprises, totally bored because there's nothing crazy to report. Thank You, and Amen.)

I couldn't resist sticking her in the eagle's next at their exhibit. By the way, she is fascinated by eagles. She really does belong to Nate and I! I took an Ornithology class in college and loved it (it was either that or some other science class that didn't include weekly field trips with friends). Nate and I never really talked about birds when we were dating (beyond my crazy list of facts that I had learned in Ornithology), although there is a lake in Bellingham, WA, that we had to drive past to and from my college to Oregon that was home to an incredible number of bald eagles. But it was on our first anniversary camping trip that we fell in love with birds: We had prime seats in our camping spot to watch an eagle fly up and down the river between her nest and fishing. We were enchanted. Since then, we've always become excited by falcons and hawks on our property. We stop to watch them. We are geeks. It's true.

Hazel loves fountains. "Water" is one of her most used words, so she says it whenever she finds a reason. There's a fountain outside of her pediatrician's office, so the last time we were over there we had to stop and watch it for awhile. She was so excited to stick her hands in the water feature at the zoo (in the PacNW exhibit). I kept saying, "Okay! All done!" trying to lead her away.  She'd walk a couple steps and then turn right around and head back to where the water was the most accessible.

Don't you just love her dress?

I realize I'm writing this post for myself more than anyone. So far it's filled with all sorts of tangents that can't possibly be THAT interesting to other people...

Continue to bear with me - we're nearing the end, I promise!

[Tutu and Hazel, who is almost 18 months]

[Can you see the spots? I realize this picture isn't super clear, but still.]

The zoo closed while we were still wandering around. I felt this intense need to "obey" the lady over the loud speaker who was telling us to exit and exit now, but I rebelled. We visited the elephants on our way out (yeah right, it's clear across the park from the entrance) and there's a "garden" of statues by their exhibit. I felt it was really really necessary to take pictures of Hazel on the little stone animals. She was a trooper! She hated the elephant and felt ill at ease, so we moved her from there to the mouse (her above roseola picture) and then to the snail, where she felt totally comfortable. His little humps made the perfect saddle for her.

The sun was warm and wonderful, but I have to say that it kicked all the animals into high gear: Many many of them were mating. I could have lived a happy life without seeing polar bears or bats mate.

We left the park around 5:15 and got home just after 6pm. Hazel was pooped! She fought me when I tried to feed her, so that was awesome. She took a bath and by the time she was dressed for bed, Nate was home from work. We found him outside, working on caulking our house. She said goodnight to him and I put her in bed. She never made another sound until 9am this morning. It's been glorious that she's sleeping so long!

I'm still job searching. Starbucks isn't going to happen - no one wants to hire a six-month pregnant lady who has to have a c-section (aka 6 weeks off from work following birth). I put in an application at New Seasons, so I'm following up on that today. Wish me luck!

Titleless.

Nate and I took another trip to Twin Rocks, around my 25 week mark. We had a good time, and it was all thanks to Rick and Karen. We couldn't have gone without their help - they sent us with funds to cover our reservation and gas, and it was such a huge gift! We had actually called them a few days before the trip to see if they would want to use our reservation and they both vehemently insisted that we still go on the trip - Hazel was spending those nights we'd be gone at their house, after all!

It was so wonderful and refreshing. Nate and I can't get enough of the beach. Here's the obligatory pregnancy picture, which is just plain messy.

Mother's Day was wonderful! I realized that it was important to communicate fully and clearly with Nate to tell him what I needed and what would be fun for Mother's Day. Clear-cut and specific seems to go a long ways. Don't get me wrong; I didn't tell him what to do for me or anything like that, but I did make it abundantly clear that the best way to start the day would be with Joe's Donuts (from Sandy).

Yum! Nate got up about half an hour before me and insisted I stay in bed, ignoring Hazel's chatting from her crib completely (hard to do). He took off and returned home within thirty minutes (this was one of those things we'd talked about, with clarity - he's usually gone like two hours when he takes off in the mornings to "surprise" me with flowers and a card; I asked if he could shorten his time a bit so I didn't feel abandoned).

When he returned with flowers and a card, which was signed also by Hazel (and how he finds such suiting and perfect cards the morning of floors me - it's magic, or he's just seriously talented, either is fine with me), he got Hazel out of bed and ready for the day. We loaded up the car and headed to the donut shop. We splurged and bought too many donuts, but it was so worth it when we were still eating them three days later.

Hazel napped for a long time that morning. When she finally woke up, she was groggy and much less chatty. She felt hot to the touch and was glassy eyed. We piled into the car and met Rick and Karen at Macaroni Grill for lunch. They treated us to an excellent meal - Nate and I were both adventurous and tried new things (that usually never works well). We tried to share our meals but then I realized his pizza was covered in soft cheeses, a no-no for preggo ladies. Ah well. I kept my lemon chicken pasta all to myself...such a bummer.

I really wanted to spend the day outside, but we ran out of time. We had about thirty minutes to walk around somewhere (after calculating drive-time), so we headed to the rhododendron garden by Reed College. It was chaos! We parked before we realized it was a huge Mother's Day plant sale. We decided to leave and go straight to Mom and Dad's hangar. We picked up Dutch Brothers on the way and actually arrived on time for dinner, rather than being harried and stressed.

We played for quite awhile, just enjoying the weather and being together. Mom felt Hazel was hot also (I thought I was going crazy) so she took her temperature. 101 degrees. Are you kidding me. The poor thing! My thermometer at home was off by like 3 degrees.

Soon after that, we knew Hazel needed a fever reducer, so we loaded up in the car and headed home, stopping to pick up some meds on our way through Canby. Hazel had a hard, hard time getting to sleep that night. She woke up every 45-60 minutes for the first four hours she was in bed. It was jarring for everyone. The worst thing was that she was nearly inconsolable every time she woke up - it took Nate a lot of *shushing* and cuddling to quiet her.

On Monday her temperature was up even higher, so I took her to the pediatrician, who said it was either the stomach bug or roseola. On Wednesday, her fever was gone but she broke out in a rash...Good ol' roseola.

She's on the mend now, thank goodness! I'm glad to see her improving, although she's still cranky. And tired, like all the time. But so am I so we're getting along great! She let me sleep in until 9am the last few mornings, which was a gift from heaven.

The pregnancy is going well. We start our seventh month on Monday. Yikes! Time is passing so quickly! I'm feeling good most days, but still starting each morning with a Zofran. I find I have an incredibly strong gag reflex if I don't take it first thing. I'm not feeling nauseous most days, though, so that's been wonderful.

We had an ultrasound a few weeks ago and the kid looks amazing! She has her dad's nose for sure! I can hardly wait to meet her...

Easter!

So, this video is long, but it's Hazel's egg hunt, and I feel (as her first true egg hunt) everyone should be privy to her excitement. Mom spread eggs out all over Hangar 52, so you'll see the adults battling some metal and equipment, but Hazel has eyes only for her lovely eggs...

[Nevermind about the video. For some reason Blogger is no longer allowing me to upload videos. I guess they want me to upgrade my blog but I really don't want to.]

I carried the camera around with me on Easter, but still managed to walk away with very few pictures! These are a couple shots from home, just before taking off for church. I was excited about the book in Hazel's basket - I like the Bernstein Bears, so when I saw the "New Baby" book I thought that would be fun for Miss B.

We started the day out with church in our brand new building. Athey Creek has held its various services at a nearby middle school for the last 11 years. This past year or so it became very clearly the time to move our church body to our own building. As far as I know, we don't outright own the building we're using now, but we have alot of leniency when all is said and done. We've built out a warehouse to suit our needs, so there are offices and classrooms along with the main sanctuary and the kids' hall.

Perhaps it's cheesy but I was so emotional at the service. It felt like such a blessing to be spending our first service in our new building talking about the resurrection. Here's a picture I took with my phone of the back of the sanctuary:

I'm not sure if you can tell or not but by the time we got to the service, it was packed. There was only standing room available...and we were 15 minutes early! ACCF went from three Sunday morning services (8a, 10a, 12 noon) down to two (9a and 11a), so I'm sure that, combined with it being Easter, is what filled up the sanctuary so fast.

When the kids were dismissed for their church, several seats opened up, but still not enough for everyone standing around the outside of the sanctuary. It was incredible. The sanctuary seats 1,200!

After church we headed straight to the hangar to meet Mom and Dad for lunch. I felt very mean to poor, tired, teething Hazel, but she did okay. She slept in the car for maybe 40 minutes and then we arrived at the hangar and she woke up.

Hazel was excited to run around the hangar and ride the tricycle Mom and Dad keep there. She fell in love with the little bell. We had lunch and Hazel opened a basket of gifts from Mom and Dad and chased down all the eggs scattered around the hangar. We ended the afternoon with lemon meringue pie and coffee before loading back up into the car to head to Nate's parents' house for the evening.

Just before heading out, though, I had Nate take a couple of belly pics. They're not that great. My hair is an absolute disaster, which I totally blame on pregnancy. Once I become pregnant, my hair (which usually grows more than a foot a year) stops growing almost completely - this round, I have fringe around my face trying to grow in after giving birth to Hazel. I'm all a mess these days!

I am 21 weeks pregnant with Baby Girl #2 in this picture. Still nauseous most mornings, tired every other day or so, but able to eat pretty much whatever I want now! I struggle with soup - I can't have that too many nights in a row - but it's been okay with me that that seems to be my only real problem. Oh, and I can't cook raw chicken or ground turkey from start to finish. Nate usually has to step in and help (I gag like crazy and then can't eat the meal).  Oh, and I want pop, like, all the time; either that or a really good nectarine. Pop is year-round, while it isn't quite nectarine season, so you can guess which one I pick when I have the option.

This picture is bad, but not nearly as awful as some of the others. I was facing the other direction for most of the pictures and my hair is crazy poofy, which no one told me - I spotted it in the mirror later that night. Excellent.

The baby moves like crazy these days, which has been so fun! Nate has felt some of her big movements and I've watched her kicking - I look forward to reaching the point where it's easy for him and Hazel to feel her and see her right along with me.

Karen sent me some photos from Easter with them, so here is Hazel playing at their house. The headband was in her basket - it's so cute! She loves to have things on her head, especially headbands, hats, and a plastic Burger King crown that Rae Ann's girls left at Mom's house.

So I think that sums up our day! We made it home in time to put Hazel to bed in her own crib - she spends the first couple hours of her bedtime on Monday nights sleeping over at Rick and Karen's so that Nate and I can attend BSF. I try to not mess up her sleep schedule too many nights in a row...

Hopefully I can figure out how to attach videos again! I have a growing pile I'd like to share! Soon, soon.

Another anniversary.

We left Hazel with Rick and Karen and took off for Twin Rocks Friends Camp on Friday, March 12th. It is incredible how much less I had to pack for just Nate and I...

We took our time leaving the city, running errands on our way to the coast. We checked in around 9pm and I craved bed immediately. We emptied the truck of our bags and coolers quickly and then went to bed.

On Saturday, we spent the morning reading (I napped, too) before heading toward Cannon Beach. We decided to keep this trip pretty simple, just hitting up the places we are most familiar with. On the drive I called Rick to check in and see how things were going with Hazel. I had to laugh at what he told me: Rick said that Hazel had made sounds throughout the night and every time she did, he got her up, like out of bed to play with toys. He was exhausted, as was Hazel, because they had spent so much of the night playing in the living room! I told him he might have just set himself up for trouble.

Cannon Beach was packed with people from all over - turns out that our weekend to celebrate Nathaniel's due date (3rd anniversary) was also a wine tasting tour weekend! It was okay, though - the little town was super busy but there was a ton of good parking because most of the tourists had been shuttled in.

Down on the beach I found a great stick to write in the sand with, so I took some time to try it out. As soon as Nate saw me writing this message, he took off - apparently I embarrassed him...So I snapped this picture of him fleeing the scene of my silliness:

So we wandered the beach, ate lunch at our favorite pub in Cannon Beach (truth be told, the only pub), had coffee at the Sleepy Monk, and then headed back to our little cabin for the night. We had dinner and watched a few episodes of "30 Rock" before finally being tired enough to go to sleep.

On Sunday we started the day of fairly slow again: Nate read and I napped (all that extra sleep was marvelous - even though my morning sickness seems to be diminishing, I'm still so tired). He woke me up around 11 so that we could pack up and head back home. We loaded up the truck and then parked at the camp entrance; we crossed the pedestrian bridge over Hwy 101 and walked to Twin Rocks beach. Ready for this? It's my 18 week pregnancy picture:

I'm wearing a thick sweater but I think the baby bump is still plenty visible. There hasn't been a real moment of "popping" like I experienced with Hazel (17 weeks, in Exeter, California, the morning of my cousin's wedding), but more of just a thickening and then "plumping" outward. I'm very much in the I-feel-fat stage, but I think that things will begin to change fairly drastically pretty soon. This kiddo is getting bigger by the day!

Speaking of the kiddo...

We found out yesterday at my 20.5 week ultrasound. Wahoo! We're pretty stinking excited! I can hardly believe we're already this far along - it's crazy how quickly time is beginning to pass.

Nate and I drove from Twin Rocks to Cannon Beach for more Sleepy Monk coffee (it's just that good). We tried to take a good beach picture of ourselves with Haystack Rock in the background, but, alas, no real luck. Here's what we did end up with, though:


Very typical beach self-portraits!

Nate wanted to finish our trip with a lunch at our favorite seafood place at the coast, so he treated me to fried deliciousness! I can't usually say that - my stomach does not handle fish and chips well, except from Ecola Seafood and Restaurant! I don't know what they do differently but it doesn't make me feel sick for hours afterward.

We got to Rick and Karen's just in time to pick up Hazel and get her home to bed. It was so wonderful to walk through their front door and have her squeal at the sight of us! She was so excited! She wanted to show us everything she'd been playing with. When we got home, she was asleep in no time. Nate and I were able to unpack and decompress before bed.

Even though I was a bit emotional on Nathaniel's due date, it was so good to be at the beach. It was so fresh there that I just stood on the sand and breathed as deeply as I could for as long as possible. It was invigorating and renewing. Nate and I treasure our time together every day, but there's something to be said about our special beach getaways. We've been so swamped lately that this trip shone as a wonderful reminder of what good friends we are, besides being husband and wife. Oh man, how I love him.

Totally annoyed.

I have a little post that I've been working on for like 2 weeks, but it won't post! I think there's something about the attached video...I'll keep at it until it works, but for now you're stuck with this: a very bland, picture-less update.

Hazel is officially 16 months. I was thinking today about how well I know her when it hit me: There's actually quite a bit to her that I'll never know. She's her own person and I might understand some of her tendencies or desires in any given situation, but there's a lot going on in that little head and heart that I can't even pretend to understand. She floors me every day with how smart she is.

Last Friday she added snake, rabbit, and fish noises to her list of animal sounds. The day before that she added lion and bear. On Monday she added rooster and chicken sounds, and today she began to include quacking.

This past Sunday she began to walk unassisted - FINALLY. Wahoo! She's flying now, practically. I lock her in the bathroom with me whenever I'm in there, and as I was doing my hair yesterday I kept seeing her head zoom past me in the mirror. She's her own biggest encourager, too - Nate and I can clap and cheer as much as we want, but it's her own clapping and laughing that keeps her going. She's currently pulling moves out of the bag that I didn't imagine she'd even conceived of. I'm impressed.

Her physical therapy has been going well. Now that she's walking I don't think we'll be seeing either therapist much longer. One of them told me that her walking was likely delayed because she was focusing so much on her talking skills - well, I'm not so sure now. She's on a roll with her everyday vocabulary, and she's walking now. I don't see one being sacrificed for the other currently. He said that once she starts walking, I'd likely see her speaking skills slow down, so I guess we'll see what actually happens down the road. For now she's a good walker and talker!

She began singing just a couple weeks ago. She has a little kid Bible with a picture of Jesus on the front; she points to the picture, looks at me, and starts swaying and humming/singing, so then we sing "Jesus Loves Me"!

She has quite an understanding of her body, too. Catch her at just the right time and she'll show you her bellybutton, elbows, knees, neck, cheeks, toes, fingers, feet, eyes, head, hair, forehead, hands, mouth, tongue, and teeth. She also understands, "Close it," "Open it," "Put it down/back," "Go under,""Turn it on/off," "Turn around," "Feet first"...and others.

She says:
dad
doggie
kitty
duck
milk
water (waa)
up
keys
cheese
juice
pop
hi
buh-bye
this
hot
poppa (for my dad)
socks
bottle
tickle

She signs:
milk
water
more
please (but only for her dad, the stinker)
and a variation of help

And now I can't think of the others! Nate needs food, so I should probably start dinner! He stopped at Trader Joe's for wine and lettuce tonight and the guy behind him in line paid for his stuff...What a small, thoughtful, wonderful blessing.

Okay, before I go, the new baby is doing well. I feel the kiddo moving all throughout the day and it's so comforting. We find out in less than a week whether we're having a boy or a girl. Crazy...Time is flying!