29 June, 2005

We have begun a new tradition in our family–dates with mom or dad.  Misha and Amy take turns every month choosing an activity for a date and choosing which parent they want to go out with.  Amy got to go in June, and she chose to go with me.  I had given her a few suggestions, but the one she liked the best was getting a manicure.  I had a gift certificate from my baby shower to Hi-Fi Nails in Longmont which expired at the end of this month so it was good timing for us.  We went on a Saturday afternoon while Chris stayed with Misha and Kristen.  Our first stop was at Wendy’s for lunch-Amy got to have a Happy Meal and was thrilled with the toy binoculars/camera. 

We arrived at the nail salon and Amy was pretty excited.  I got a pedicure and sat in a chair across the room from her while she got her nails done and painted in a bright pink-what a surprise.  Every time we would catch each others' eyes she would give me a huge grin.  I just knew she was loving every minute of it.  Plus, they put flowers on a couple of her nails.  She was finished and waiting for me when one of the technicians who wasn’t busy asked if she wanted her toe nails painted as well.  She looked over at me with a very hopeful look, and I nodded my head yes.  What a thrill.  I don’t think they even charged us extra for her toes and they must not charge a lot for children because my pedicure was most of the expense.

After our nails, Amy requested that we go for ice cream.  We headed down to McDonalds.  I called Chris from there to see how Kristen was doing.  She was awake and would soon be needing to eat.  I’m pretty sure Chris wasn’t happy about having to stay in and babysit Kristen for the afternoon.  He was in the middle of projects outside, and she pretty much needs constant attention since she rarely sleeps much during the day.

Amy loves her nails.  I cautioned her that she couldn’t pick at them like she does when I paint them.  She was more than eager to show both fingers and toes to all of her friends the next day at church.

The night before our date, we went to a soccer game in Boulder.  We thought we were going to see the Boulder team, Rapids Reserve, play BYU, but we were misinformed.  We ended up watching playoffs of younger teams.  Chris enjoyed himself nevertheless, and we went as a treat for him on Father’s Day.

Speaking of Father’s Day, on Saturday (the day of my date with Amy), I tried to bring Chris breakfast in bed, but he was up before I could get up there.  He had things to do in the yard and wanted to get an early start when it was cooler.  His projects ended up taking most of the day, but that night we took him out to dinner at La Mariposa in Longmont for Mexican food. 

The girls are enjoying story time at the library this summer.  The theme is all about dragon, knights, and castles.  This past week they had a juggler/magician that was quite fascinating.  The girls were impressed that she could juggle two bowling balls and make a dove appear.  The lady kept all of the kids engrossed, which is usually difficult for such a large crowd.

Amy and Misha are both enrolled in their second session of swimming lessons for the summer.  Amy is doing rather well and will likely move on to the next level next session.  She needs a little work on her form but is quite a fish otherwise.  Misha still doesn’t enjoy putting her face in the water, but she is improving as well.  I think she’ll need a little more time before catching up to Amy.  Course she is a year and a half younger too.  I think sometimes we forget that since they do so much together.

Chris just finished installing a decorative retaining wall in the front yard.   It looks fantastic.  I hope to be able to plant flowers and bushes in it to add a lot of color and dimension to the front of our house.  We are also hoping to create two areas for bushes and trees in the bottom front corners of the yard.  There is lots that I would like to do with the yard, but it will take some time and money.

The University of Phoenix had their graduation dinner and ceremonies last weekend-the 24th and 25th.  Wasdens watched Amy and Misha while Chris and I and Kristen attended the dinner on Friday night.  Kristen was quite good.  The glass ornaments on the ceiling kept her attention most of the time.  We were able to meet up with Jamie and Jeremy Riddle and sit with them.  They completed their Master degrees from the University of Phoenix last fall.

Grandpa Kline and girlfriend rolled in for a visit last Tuesday the 21st.  They came in his RV and had been traveling for a couple of days.  When they got here, Chris (the girlfriend) had been sick and Grandpa Kline was sick.  He lay on our couch the entire time with the stomach flu, fever, and chills.  Not so much fun for Amy and Misha who were looking forward to his visit.  Grandpa brought his bird on vacation, so the girls were excited to go see him as well as to explore the RV.  Because Larry was sick, we offered to have him sleep in the house but made it clear that he and Chris would be in separate rooms.  They were fine with that.  They left about 1:30 Wednesday afternoon.

28 June, 2005

I have been putting this off for too long, but that is not to say that life isn’t keeping me busy.  I think we are beginning to settle in to a bit of a routine.  At least in how we do things (or try to), not so much when.  Kristen is getting better about sleeping through the night.  I think the longest stretch for her has been from 9 pm to 6 am.

We have had lots of family over the last two months.  Dallin and Donna stopped in for a little while on their way home from a trip to Illinois to visit church history sites.  They had hoped to stay with us on their way out to Illinois, but the night before they left Donna became sick.  They didn’t want to spread germs to our family, especially Kristen, so they decided to stop in on the way home a week later.  Sadly, Donna was still feeling under the weather then.  They stopped and visited for an hour or so and then decided to head on home.  I know they were disappointed in not having more time to visit, but I did appreciate that they were willing to sacrifice that in order to keep us healthy.  That was May 13.  On the 14th, my parents arrived. 

We all went to church together on Sunday.  It was my first Sunday back.  Kind of hairy trying to get three girls ready for church by nine, including feeding Kristen.  I realized when we got to church that I hadn’t fixed Kristen’s hair at all and fortunately she had slept in a cute outfit because there just wasn’t enough time to change it.  I was also teaching Relief Society, though I really should have given myself a break.  It was a lot to handle.  I didn’t feel confident or as prepared as usual.  Amazing how a baby who doesn’t do much can take up so much of my time.

My parents had been in Utah watching Dallin and Donna’s children and were more than happy to escape from parenting duties.  They were quite exhausted by the time they arrived here, which made a lot of us since I was still getting up in the night regularly with Kristen.  Mom did craft projects with the girls making beaded bracelets and necklaces.  The girls loved the one on one time. We went to play miniature golf with Grandma and Grandpa.  My mom would have preferred not playing at all, but I think she enjoyed herself nevertheless.  I pretty much told her she had to play.  After golfing we went out to dinner at Olive Garden.  That is always a fun place for us to go.  My parents stayed until the following Wednesday morning when they got up early to make the trip home.

I have been exercising or attempting to for about a month now.  When I walk on the treadmill, I get a gnawing pain on my right side every morning which keeps me from progressing.  I don’t know if it is from being out of shape, from nursing, from being exhausted–or probably a combination of all three–but I don’t have a lot of oomph for exercising.  I look at my body and wish that it were different, but I’m not following through on the exercising part.

Linda came for a long visit beginning on a Wednesday over the Memorial Day weekend.  Sadly she came with laryngitis and woke up Thursday morning with inflamed and pink eyes.  She was pretty upset, as was I.  I didn’t offer to have her hold Kristen until Saturday when I thought she was on the mend and the rest of us weren’t picking up what she had.  Chris made an appointment for her at the doctor’s office a couple miles from our home.  The doctor said that her laryngitis was clearing up and the eye problems should go away.  She flew home the following Tuesday.  The highlight was visiting the Alpine slide in Golden, Colorado at Heritage Square.  I stayed with Kristen while the girls, Chris, and Linda took three turns on the slide.  They all loved it.

So more about Kristen’s growth and progress.  At two weeks she had her first doctor visit.  I can’t say that any doctor visit during the first year and a half is all that pleasant for a baby.  At this visit, she had her heal pricked and then while she was screaming they had to squeeze enough blood out for the PKU test.  She was definitely NOT happy.  Amy and Misha were with me, but were playing on the toys in another area of the doctors’ office.  They could hear Kristen wailing, as could most others and came to see what was happening.  By this time I was cradling Kristen trying to calm her.  Amy started talking to Kristen and Misha asked if she could sing to her.  Mish just made up the words and the tune impromptu.  What sweet girls.  But the thing that really impressed me is that they were able to calm Kristen down and it was obvious that she recognized them.

Kristen smiled at me for the first time on May 16.  Grandma Rice was actually the first recipient of a smile a couple of days earlier, and though Chris tried to encourage one out of her, he didn’t get a smile from Kristen until a couple of weeks later.  He was pretty happy when she finally did smile at him.  Kristen is a bit ahead of schedule with her rolling over.  At approximately three weeks, I noticed that she was trying to roll over.  I was amazed that she was even trying and definitely tried to discourage her from doing it so early; she wasn’t successful at it until about 5 weeks of age with Grandma Ball.

Kristen loves to look around and gazes specifically at the ceiling fans in our rooms.  It seemed as though when she reached six weeks her eyes suddenly focused and she became more alert.  Her neck muscles are strengthening and her skill in holding her head up and keeping it still is improving.

I had my six week check about a month ago.  Dr. Isbill, the OB, gave me the go ahead to start exercising.  My incision looked as though it was healing well and she was impressed that I had already lost 20 pounds.  Impressive, I suppose, but I sure do wish it were more and faster.  If my body mirrors other pregnancies, I won’t be losing a lot of weight until I stop nursing and that is not fun.

Amy and Misha came down with colds after Grandma Ball left–the first week in June.  I quarantined them from being around Kristen.  Amy is a lot better about remembering, fortunately the rest of us, especially Kristen were able to avoid being sick.  By this time in Misha’s young life as a baby she had already been sick twice and caught a cold again at three months.

Kristen had her two month visit with Dr. Moffatt and weighed in at 12 pounds 3 ounces.  She has grown 2 1/4 inches and is now 23 inches long.  She is in the 75th percentile for height and weight.  The poor thing got four shots in her legs–pretty traumatic for all of us as Amy and Misha were with me.

The girls are always coming up with funny things to say and I try to remember a write them down so that they can have a laugh at them later in life.  A couple weeks ago, we were rounding the corner coming home past the mobile home park below us.  A new trailer was being moved in and was still in two pieces.  All of a sudden Amy says, “That house is having a heart attack.”  I laughed and asked her why she thought that and she said, “It’s falling apart!”

Misha’s latest phrase when I ask her to do something and she doesn’t want to is, “I don’t feel good like to do it.”  Not sure where she picked that particular phrasing up.  I bought some strawberry flavored applesauce the other day and gave it to the girls for lunch.  Misha had a taste and said, “Mmmm, Mom, this tastes better than the yucky stuff.”  Meaning, of course, regular applesauce.