Anemonae, Alaya and Alora Beals - anemonaeardenbeals

We took the girls to the zoo yesterday. Unfortunately Nemi had been sick the day before so she wore out quickly and we left early. But we got there right at opening so they had just let out all the big animals. They pretty much all came right up to the windows which delighted all three children!

Pictures are in the mail!!!

The twins current vocabulary is:
Momma, Dada, Sissy, Nemi, Alora, Nana, Papa, Cat, Charlie, Dog, Doggy, Tickle, Hi, More, Done, Thank You, Please, No, and a few more that I can't think of.
The pediatrician was very impressed, he only expected them to be saying 3-4 words by now! 

April videos are all caught up! Now to go film some more sweet moments :)

I just added 18 videos to catch up on March.  I'm now working on April. Hopefully soon I'll be caught up. Enjoy!

It's APRIL.  APRIL! 
It's 82 degrees currently.  The kids and I called Nana and Lennart  and we all headed to Vancouver lake for the day. I brought hoodies just in case the wind off the lake was cold.  Good thing I also brought swim suits because the water was warm and on a Monday morning nobody else thought of going.  It was incredible and almost nobody else was on the beach.  I'm uploading a bunch of fantastic photos now. And you know me.. 10 minutes in the sun and I'm a warm golden brown :)

I have a bunch of videos I'm behind on, but I added one new one. Alora is walking now too!!! I'll try to catch up on the other's after this weekend. Be expecting a bunch of first birthday photos soon! The birthday party is Saturday afternoon!

The computer is fixed and all of our data was retrieved! We're back in business!

I think I have skype up and working on my laptop now but I haven't had a chance to test it with anybody yet.  Dan's working a lot of hours right now so we haven't been able to repair our desktop machine. 

I just posted a video of Alaya walking today.  Just within the last two days she's started doing it more and more to get around without coaxing.
I've been ultra busy lately on top of having our computer crash. We had just invested in a new setup and unfortunately got a trojan virus which wiped out all 3 hard drives, including all of my videos and photos. So until we recover those drives I'm stuck on my laptop which is kinda slow and doesn't have a good photo editor or much storage space. I promise I've been taking pictures, they are all just stuck on my camera at the moment. 

My father in law has been very ill and in the hospital so I have not been home very much this week.  In that time my mother has been watching the kids and here's the updates.
The twins say Sissy now.
Alora took her first steps.
Alaya is tumbling around 5 steps at a time.
Nemi earned a My Little Pony trainset.
Our brand new computer died. So I'm on the laptop again.
I'm not sure when I'll get to update pics and videos again, hopefully when we're not camping at the hospital.

This evening while I was away Dan had Alora and Nemi in the family room.  Nemi left the baby gate open and Dan didn't notice until Nemi yelled, Alora is in the kitchen!  He stood up and the baby was crawling as fast as she could towards Gizmo squealing, "dog dog dog dog dog"  By the time he got to her she had stood up and was ready to tackle the dog. :)

Yesterday was a gorgeous day so we took all the kids out to the mall and bought new shoes!  I can't believe the twins are already a size 3, Nemi's almost in a 10! 

Today was beautiful but somewhat chilly. Nemi was bundled up and had a bucket of water to wash windows.  She got thoroughly soaked and was shivering so I popped her into a warm bath and walked away intending to check on her in a minute.  I got preoccupied then heard some weird noise and went to investigate. As I got closer to the front door it sounded like water was running. I thought the hose was going so I went outside and checked. Nope. Where was it coming from. Then it dawned on me. I went racing inside slid on the wet floor as I rounded the corner to the bathroom where Nemi was up to her neck in the overflowing tub.  She screamed and jumped and I started yelling as I shut off the freezing water. I pulled her out of the tub and sent her to her room.  She could have drown herself, not to mention turned the water on scalding hot.  I don't even want to think of the hard wood floors. Anyway. After she apologized she thoroughly scrubbed the entire bathroom floor and they are sparkling now!

It's official. We have a walker. 2 days ago we were having to coax Alaya to take a step or two, today she's just standing up wherever she is and walking 5 steps at a time. 
Alora is thoroughly uninterested.

I've finally caught up on my videos again!  Check out the new video of Alaya's first steps!!!

I finally caught Alaya walking on video today!!! Bear with me, I currently have about 20 videos uploading to youtube. I'll have them on here as soon as possible!

Please forgive my absence.  I've been out of town for several days helping some family out and Dan has rebuilt our computer so I've had to reinstall all of my camera info and find all of my saved pages.  I'm finally back and in business!  I have a TON of new videos I'll hopefully catch up on very soon. 

We had the girls all measured and weighed at the WIC office today. I updated their stats in the growth chart tab!

With Nemi's history of lazy eye the pediatrician recommended we get the twins checked out.  We had noticed a little bit of turning but weren't sure if it was a normal amount or not.
Alaya has a tiny bit of farsightedness but the eye doctor was pretty sure it was only a normal amount and neither required glasses.  Neither of them have a lazy eye which is great. He gave me a pamphlet that shows how when we're babies the upper bridges of our noses are wider causing us to look more cross eyed and that if you shine a light or take a picture with a flash you can see that the light is even in the same spot in both pupils, where a cross eye or lazy eye wouldn't have the light in one pupil it would be off to the side.  It was very reassuring and I'm so incredibly relieved not to have to deal with glasses on a baby again!

When I was reading about parenting and child development with Nemi I learned that a childs reasoning and understanding starts kicking in at around 9 months.  This is the time when you can start teaching boundaries and discipline.  It worked very well for Nemi, and now we're starting it with the next two.  Alaya just ignores you. But Alora KNOWS the word NO.  She's constantly stuffing fuzz or anything into her mouth, you say no forcefully and she instantly starts running away from you, and when you take it away she flings herself on the ground, turns bright red, and starts shrieking.  This girl has a temper and she's only 10 months old.  I've been remembering some of my meltdowns as a preteen and my imagination is going wild with how fiery these three are really going to be!

Alaya took her first steps yesterday! One step on three different occasions.
Alora stood up by herself for the first time today so she's on her way too!

I recently bought Anemonae a new book entitled, Polite as a Princess.  It's made by disney and it says things like Cinderella always asks please, Snow White is very good at sharing, Jasmine always makes her guests feel welcome... etc.  Today at lunch I said, " Be a good princess and eat your food" To which Nemi sassed back, " I don't like being a princess"
We have a plastic lattice play yard that we take to friends homes to coral the twins, we also use it in the living room to fence off the brick fireplace.  This morning I went to grab Alaya from her crib and I heard a weird scream from Alora in the family room. I came racing in to find her halfway up the fence with her toes shoved through the lattice work like a monkey.  She promptly fell and caught her chin on the upper rail.  I'm not sure if she learned her lesson, or I need to learn one very soon.  Apparently we breed a variety of flying squirrel monkeys... I remember going through this exact same thing with Nemi and the couches.

We're back! We're considerably healthier! 
Updates: Let's see.

Alaya- I haven't gotten pics of it yet but she's getting really good at standing on her own. No hands mom! She's also developed this squeaky sound that sounds like a squeaky toy breathing in and out. At first we thought she was choking.. but no, it's just her happy sound.

Alora- She's a climber! She'll scale anything on all fours she can reach.  She also Wags her head repeatedly no when you talk to her or any music is playing she bounces and wags her head. (very cute)

Anemonae-  What a firecracker!  She constantly shocks me with her giant vocabulary.  She uses BIG words on a regular basis and knows how to use them in the proper context.  She tells the dr's what instruments they are using, corrects our behavior, and sasses back like nobody's business. If you tell her she's not being nice she'll put a hand on her hip stick a finger out at you and say, "Your not being nice to me Mommy"  In the car she regularly yells at the sun, "NO sun, Go away, Go away Sun!" She's also a backseat driver. She yells mommy GO it's green and Stop it's red.  Right now we're working on Addition, Writing her ABC's and how to read a calendar and clock.

In a world filled with germs and infection, defying all odds, armed only with a bottle of sanitizer and years of experience; One woman stepped up to the plate, risking her very well being.  Stepping out of the cold darkness she swooped in and forced her prey... to take a shower and a nap. When all sanity had been lost, Nana took over and nursed babies back to health and babysat sick kids while I took them to the doctor numerous times.  Thanks mom.
I'm happy to say all three girls are feeling incredibly better, everybody still has a cough, but even the runny noses are finally drying up! The house has been aired out, fresh filters on all vents, linens stripped and bleached, doorknobs and light switches lysoled. 

We've been fever free for 24 hours. Nemi went back to the pediatrician today and was swabbed, she shows no signs of strep or infection and the twins are noticeably better. No more barking, just regular coughs for everybody and runny noses. Alora's still got the worst congestion but it's so much better and she's starting to eat normally again too.  I'm even starting to feel better!

Today I spent the better part of the morning stripping beds, sanitizing doorhandles and light switches, and vacuuming any dust particle in sight. I also aired out the kids rooms with the doors closed so I didn't freeze us out completely.  Alora woke us up very early fussing and coughing and not much later Alaya woke up.  We got them both calmed and Alora another breathing treatment and they both passed out on the floor. I laid down next to them and fell asleep. When I awoke all three girls were bouncing all over the living room and had already been fed! I slept like the dead and Dan said I snored quite a bit also.  It was GREAT. First sleep I've had in 3 days!  Anemonae is DEFINITELY feeling better, she has energy and was feeling cooped up.  She still has a nasty cough but her fever has finally been gone for 24 hours!  I took her to the store to snag some supplies, we had been completely out of disposable diapers for a day and I am really behind on the laundry so we hadn't been wanting to cloth diaper this week.  And we ran through 4 boxes of kleenex in 2 days!  Alaya also gained energy as the day progressed and we stopped her breathing treatments.  Alora is still barking and having problems eating because she's so stuffed up but I'm sure in another day she'll come around too.  The labs came back and they have the Parainfluenza virus which is supposed to have 5 bad days and 5 healing days. Dan's on day 7, Nemi's on day 6, and the twins and I are on day 5. Here's hoping and praying that by the end of the weekend we'll be cured!!!

I took the twins in today and the dr was kind of on the border of thinking they are ok vs they should go to the hospital. She decided to give them a nebulizer treatment and a chest xray. Unfortunately the xray machine died as soon as they tried doing it.  So they told us to keep up on the treatments and if they worsen tonight to take them to the hospital for the xray to rule out any further problems.  They also did a nasal swab so we can find out the exact virus they have and go from there.

It feels like we've been sick for ages and Nemi keeps looking better then getting worse again, but I finally believe she's healing.  Unfortunately the twins are terribly sick.  I'm taking them in tomorrow to see a doctor, I'm almost certain they have croup.  It's absolutely heartbreaking listening to them bark and gasp and then moan and whimper. Nothing I do seems to help them feel any better. I really hope the dr can do something other than tell me it'll pass.  We've tried all the old tricks in the book. 

Everybody is sick. Bad colds all around. Nemi's had a fever of 102 off and on since yesterday. The twins are alternating 100-101 Dan and I aren't much better. Here's to better health and less misery!  Ended up taking Nemi to the ER and they finally got her temp down to manageable.  She's home and much happier now but still sick.

By demand I have to tell you that right after Alora said Charlie's name her Nana came to visit. Nana was outraged that Alora had said the cats name before her own so she bullied her into saying Nana :-D Just like she bullied me into posting about it.

Charlie is our giant black Tom.  The babies want that cat.  They do everything they can to high tail it to the cat when he lays on the ground. This morning Nemi was petting the cat and calling him and Alora was watching and listening.  Nemi said Charlie kitty kitty and clicked her tongue... and Alora said Carlie and clicked her tongue! My brother and I couldn't believe it!!! Sneaky little girl!

We've mentioned before that we believe our girls are what's referred to as mirror twins. This of course means that their features mirror each other. For a while now we've been able to tell them apart because Alora's right ear has a point on the inside of the arch and Alaya's is on the left.  Last week Dan mentioned another mirrored thing and I thought he was crazy but this week I started paying attention and sure enough, Alora is left handed and Alaya is right handed! Isn't that crazy?

Let's see, last week the little ones drove us nuts with feedings. Refused to eat from a spoon and made a huge mess.  We gave up and gave them eggs and sausage which they fist fed themselves until they were stuffed. It was a sign. This week we've switched to canned veggies and chopped fruits instead of purees and they are in heaven.  There's been some resistance to the new foods, Carrots took a couple of tries, and peas just kept popping back out of their mouths.  Alora actually is pretty fond of the peas now.  Alaya not so much.

They've both been scooting around the edges of everything for a while now and tonight Alaya just decided to let go.  And then she was doing it several times.. just standing on her own.  Pretty sure she's going to walk pretty soon.  Alora can stand on her own if you make her, but she chooses not to actively try to do anything, well, active. 

They are into everything, especially the wipes.  If it gets quiet you can pretty much guarantee Alora is eating wipes.  Sometimes they'll even gang up on the wipes and pull either end until they rip and rip and rip into tiny little shreds all over the carpet, then proceed to eat the little bits, or choke on them.

Nemi's regressing slightly again.  She's been lacking attention since Dan's been working very long hours the last several weeks. My brother has been here helping several days a week but it doesn't make up for the fact that daddy is gone most of the time.  On the other hand she's started eating again, which we were really struggling with for months.  Nothing but string cheese and chicken nuggets for that kid. Her weight was starting to suffer from it and the nutritionist was getting concerned.  Now she'll eat a whole sandwich and 2 eggs with sausage and keep asking for more.  So hopefully she'll hit a growth spurt and catch up some.

Anemonae had her eye appointment this morning and she's still 20/60. The dr is at a loss as to why it isn't getting better but said we'd check again in 4 months and redo her prescription then.  We may have to resort to patching but he's kind of borderline on that. Her right eye still dives in horribly without her glasses.

The twins had their 9 month physical today. They are exactly 1 pound apart with Alora at 16.15 pounds and Alaya at 15.15 pounds. Anemonae was 17.6 pounds at that age so they are catching up!  Both Nemi's eye dr and the pediatrician recommended we have the twins in soon for an eye exam. I think they've both noticed a slight turning of an eye in the twins also but it's not nearly as bad as Nemi's was.

It snowed most of last night and it was gorgeous, I was so excited for Nemi to play in it. Bright and early it started raining and washed most of it into a huge slush so she didn't even have a chance.

Children are much more resilient than parents.  Yesterday I spent the day with my mom and when I got home I walked in to the horrific scene of a panicked Dan holding Alaya who's nose was purple and bleeding.  She had fallen and busted her head on the step into our kitchen. Dan was freaking out over possible brain damage since she hadn't cried much and was just sitting there pretty mellowly not responding to much. I decided to ease his mind I'd take her to the urgent care clinic and they'd tell us everything was alright.  I did so, the dr said it was unlikely her nose was broken since their cartilage is very bendy still at that age but we'd do an xray anyway and she'd call the ped unit at the local hospital for a consult, she was worried about a possible concussion because she still wasn't really responding like a normal child.  The xray went horribly and 3 of us couldn't hold her still enough.  At that point the dr rushed in and told us to stop that at the urging of the ped staff she was transferring us to the hospital to get a cat scan to make sure there was no internal bleeding. At this point Dan was panicking, I told him it was just precautionary but I did end up swinging by to grab my sister in law to keep me company since it'd already been well over 2 hours at the current center.  They treated us very well, I got to see the giant machine up close and personal, had my own mini panic attack as she was being pulled through and having her brain scanned.  Then they pronounced her just fine and sent her home.
5 hours later I was ready for a rest and some dinner.
I'm sure this is just the first of many er visits for busted noses and broken limbs.  Thrilling.

Alaya cut her third tooth. She has both bottom front and her top left front teeth. Alora's not far behind. I see two top teeth right under the gums so maybe she'll get both at once.  The ammount of drool they are producing is akin to a Saint Bernard.

It got me.  I had to cancel our beach trip.  Nemi's had an off and on again fever but seems to be fine otherwise. Dan's on the way to recovery and I seem to have gotten hit the hardest.  Our reservation didn't go to waste though. My mom and Lennart jumped on the opportunity to go to the beach for the weekend :)

It was bound to happen eventually.  Although I was under the impression that my children were super hero babies who never got sick. They finally got sick.  All of them.
I've never had to clean up vomit before in my life. Not even my own.  I can't say it was something i was missing in life.  Unfortunately Dan is also horribly ill and absolutely no help to me.  I have a condo reserved for me and a girlfriend at the beach for the weekend so of course everybody starts vomiting the day before.  We'll see how this ends. :)

The babies are now mimicking a lot of what we say.  Dan will say a word to Alora and she'll mimic it back.  Tonight she was saying toes toes and feet feet.
Alora also says Dada now and Alaya says Mama regularly.

I finally caught up on all the videos! Check them out!

Nemi kept us awake all night last night.  But I caaaaan't sleep!  I finally had Dan crawl in with her at around 5am and he pinned her down and she slept until 8.  When she woke up I said crawl in bed with me and watch a movie so I can sleep.  No mommy! It's Kissmiss!  Is it Kissmiss?  Yes Nemi it's Christmas.  But I don't see any snow outside mommy!   Can I get my presents?  I told her we're waiting for Grandpa before we open gifts but I think there's something special under the tree for her. She races out and sees a stuffed brown puppy dog and scoops it up hugging it tightly while exclaiming, it's just what I wanted!!! ( She's been asking for a while, and I searched all over Vancouver and Portland before I found one, then knitted the red scarf it MUST have)  Later on she exclaimed, It matches MUD! Thus Mud the dog was named.

This evening we went to Dan's cousin's house and celebrated with most of his family. Our sister in law Geri had our niece and nephew in Kansas visiting her family so there were only our kids and cousin Cole this year to open presents.  The food was great and the kids are currently fighting over their new giant foam building blocks.  Anemonae builds a huge tower then everybody squeals as the twins crawl all over it like mini godzilla babies.

Boy we've been busy.  Dan started working at a new shop on Monday, they have a lot of work to get done right now so he's working very long hours.  Which means I'm learning what life is like for single mothers.  Alora is now cruising!  She very timidly inches her way around the couch, toy box, baby gates.  I have a feeling she's going to be a very early walker.  She's pretty much always standing up now.  Alaya is just starting to regularly pull up. It's so funny to me, their personalities and habits seem to have completely reversed. Alaya used to be physically so far ahead of Alora and now it's completely opposite! They sure keep me on my toes!
Nemi is an incredible big sister, she loves playing with them, holding them, brushing their hair, picking out their clothes and feeding them.  She's incredible with sharing her toys with them also.  She's very much into My Little Pony still, and refuses to wear clothes.  I pretty much have to threaten her to get her dressed to leave the house. Maybe I should let her step outside in the cold sometime to convince her? 
We fed the babies their first banana chunks this week. Alaya loves cereal and bananas and feeding herself. Alora still prefers purees and bottles and doesn't want to do the work herself.

We officially have two crawlers, they also sit up on their own very well now with no support.  And they are both after all of Nemi's favorite toys.  She's taking it surprisingly well and is sharing everything and teaching them how to press buttons and play.  She thinks it's hilarious every time one of them goes after her things.  I can't wait for them to start interacting with her more!

Alora's been crawling for a few days now, Alaya's been hopping and scooting everywhere, but today she started crawling too!

AAAHHHH!  What happened to my lazy chubby baby!  All of a sudden Alora has taken off. Yesterday she was creeping today she's crawling into everything.. FAST.  Oh look, Nemi left a drawer open if I pull on it it'll fall on my head!  Oh look a wippee box, let's completely empty the contents!  Oh look, a lamp cord, let's chew on it!  Oh look mommy left the vacuum out!  I can't sit down for two seconds without her being in something.  Everybody talks about how wonderful it'll be when they are a little more independent.  The reality is they help each other remove their clothing, pull each other's hair, and run mommy ragged.  I remember all of this all to well. Here's to another night spent babyproofing the entire house STAT!

We went to Nana Gwen's company Christmas party tonight and there were a bunch of kids and babies both Nemi and the twins ages. They all had a blast, but I think the twins got too many ideas because when we came home, Alora scooted over to the end table and pulled up to standing!!! Dan yelled at me and I grabbed the camera!  I got it on film!!!

I had some time to think this past week about the importance of family. About how even the poorest man is the richest if he has the support of those who love him.  I remembered growing up knowing how lucky I was to have gotten to know so many of my great-grand parents and even a great-great-grandmother.  Then I realized, my children have even more!!!
They have Nana Gwen, Grandpa Lennart, Grandpa Landon, Papa Roy, Grandma Joyce, and Oma Lynn.  For Great Grandparents they have Oma and Opa Wutzke, Grandma and Grandpa Furst, Grandma Kitty, Grandma Gladys, Grandma Martha, Grandma Sally, Grandpa Robbie, and Grandma Christel.  That's 16 grand parents!  Then there are all the aunts and uncles and great aunts and uncles and even great-great aunts and uncles!
I just want to say thank you, to you all. No matter the struggles we undergo in our lives, how we fail to provide. I know that my children will always be rich in family and can make it through anything just as we have with the support of those who love them.

Last night Alora sat up all by herself, and Alaya just did it a minute ago!

Dan's mother drove from Kansas to visit everybody this week.  It was the first time she got to meet all of the girls and myself.  On Sunday morning we packed everybody up and drove to Seattle for the day to meet her mother, Great Grandma Gladys and some other family members I'd never met before.  We had a great time and all the kids had a blast.  I also snuck in some time with a friend who I went to grade school with and haven't seen in 14 years.  We were very close as children and I was very worried about how much we'd both changed. Fortunately we've both grown in the same direction and we got along so well.  It was so nice to meet her and her fiance.

I've heard little "words" here and there. I've several times thought Alora was saying Alaya. But this morning clear as day Alaya said Mama 3 times!!! 

Thank you Papa Roy for our outrageously huge new computer monitor. We are back up and running. 
It's been an exciting week!  The girls got haircuts after many comments from grandparents and friends about their bangs being in their eyes.  And Dan's mom drove up from Kansas to visit and met all the kids for the first time.  This weekend we'll be driving to Seattle to meet her mother and sisters also!  I've always said a kid can never have too many grandparents.  When I was little my Opa told me that you can have no money whatsoever but if you have family you are a rich man.  We aree incredibly wealthy for all of the love and comfort we have been given from our families during our hardest times.  I can't wait to meet even more.

We are experiencing computer difficulties.  Our monitor died.  So until we can get a new one I'll be posting from my laptop. Unfortunately my laptop doesn't have my photo and video editing software on it so it may be a few weeks before I'm able to do those. We'll keep in touch!

Alora cut her first tooth overnight. It's popped completely through and her gum swelling has finally gone down! Now they both have teeth!

I am convinced that feeding Alora should be considered the next Olympic sport. That girl can turn her head all the way around and upside down like an owl to avoid a spoonful of bananas.  She's also very fond of blowing a raspberry directly into a spoonful of squash and spraying you head to toe with the contents.  She wobbles too and fro like a drunken sailor so you end up getting peas in both of her ears.  Then she leans forward and latches her jaw on to the front of her tray like a lizard clinging onto your finger so there is no way you can possibly get the food into her mouth.  On to the next sport... try and wash her face off, I dare you.  You'll learn how loud she really can scream.

Tonight we went trick or treating with my best friend and two almost two year old boys.  Anemonae had a blast!  I was carrying Alaya in a sling and Dan had Alora in a front pack. He would walk up with the kids and every time the kids said trick or treat Alora would crack up laughing. She was having a blast!  Alaya just slept the whole trip warm and cozy in her sling.

Alaya just cut her 2nd tooth. I can see Alora's through the gums, I predict 1-2 days before hers cut. It's all of a sudden going by so quickly! They'll be in college next month.

Alora gobbled them down.  Alaya made a terrible face, ate another bite and spat, ate another bite and gagged, then choked, then projectile vomited on me.  I've learned my lesson.

Last night Alora learned how to spray me with Squash.  It didn't go over as well as the peas at first.  After a few bites they gobbled it all up, then we had to have a bath because there was squash everywhere.

Alaya's bottom left tooth cut tonight!

6 Month Visit
Alaya 13lbs 11.6oz 25" 16 1/4" head 
Alora 14lbs 5.6 oz 25" 16 1/2" head
They hit the 25th percentile! Their last visit they were only at fifth percentile so they are growing quickly and catching up!

We started baby foods this week.  They've been getting rice cereal for several weeks now, Alaya loves oatmeal, Alora not so much.  We started veggies today and I decided to start with what I thought was the grossest, peas.  They both love them! I couldn't believe how quickly those two downed those vile green vegetables!

Last week I added a bunch of videos to the September file and today I am busily adding to October. Keep checking back, everything in the October file is brand new!!!

It's amazing to me the differences in our parenting techniques this time around. I used to be scared to death of taking a shower so I would drag the swing into the bathroom when Nemi was a baby and peek around the shower curtain every few seconds to make sure she was okay.  I have no idea where I thought she was going to go.  We also were very prompt about removing her fingers from her mouth whenever we saw her sucking on them so we wouldn't have a thumb sucker.  The second time around is so different, especially with multiples. Alora is a thumb sucker.  When we realized it we both stared at each other for a long time... then shrugged our shoulders.  We were so grateful when both of them were screaming their heads off that one was able to sooth herself so easily leaving us with only the other two to deal with that we just let it go.  It's kinda cute too ;)

The kiddos have all been sick for about a week now in various stages of snotty noses and coughing.  Alora has had some worse symptoms that developed into a pretty bad rash we've been treating with prescription antibiotic creams.  They finally seem to be on the up but now the noses are just running nonstop.  The life of a mom :)
Alaya is days away from raising up on her hands and knees she's trying so very hard!

The twins have started interacting with each other, they smile so big when one sees the other and they just chatter and coo for long periods of time. 
Anemonae is fully potty trained and has had no accidents in weeks. We don't even use pull ups at night anymore! 
Our family room was finished a couple of weeks ago and the kids love rolling around on the new carpet.  We've been working on teaching the little girls to sit up on their own and Nemi is learning how to share her toys.

We went to WIC yesterday and they weighed the twins. Alaya is 12 lbs 5 oz and Alora is 12 lbs 14 oz.  I looked back in the growth chart and Nemi was 15 pounds at this age so they are catching up!

Last week I ran out of diapers for Nemi. I decided against purchasing any more.  We went cold turkey people.  Straight into the underpants, going every 30 minutes to the toilet. It took 5 grueling days of me on my hands and knees scrubbing the floors clean again. But she finally got it! Now I'm not going to jinx myself and say she's potty trained, but she hasn't had an accident in a whole day, has stayed dry at night for two days, and most importantly she's now telling me when she has to go!!!! We used a combination of a dinner mint every time she goes and a chart with 14 hearts on it, she gets a sticker to cover a heart every time she goes and when she fills up two whole pages she gets a prize.  The prizes are sitting on the mantel out of reach so she can see them but not touch.

We started cereal this week.  They love it in their bottles. Alaya is pretty good with the spoon but Alora obviously isn't ready, she just sits there and lets it dribble down her chin :)

We spent some time at Nana and Lennart's new house today and they were nice enough to turn down the temp on their hot tub so Nemi could play. I hopped in with her and we hung out until I was a prune, then Nana jumped in and spent some time with Nemi until she was all shriveled up too.  Nemi loved it!

All the girls had their checkups today. I've updated their info in the growth chart section. Nemi is in the 75th percentile for height and 50% for weight so she's perfect! The twins are at 5% and 10% so they are still small but growing like weeds and the Dr. was very happy with their development. None of them show any signs of catching my germs.

I apologize for no updates for a while. I've been very sick and come to find out yesterday I have Strep throat, a double ear infection and an eye infection. Now that I have antibiotics I'm happier and sure to feel better soon.

The twins had their first haircut today!  They had both aquired a bald spot in the back of their heads and now that it's growing out it looked ridiculous with the long hair above and below it so I buzzed it up to match... almost. :)  There's a pic of their new do's, Dan's holding them and they both are in diapers with their backs to the camera.

I just posted several new videos.  Including one of me tickling Alaya, she squeals when you do it, but you can't tell if she's happy or in pain! 

The twins have officially turned into drooling fist munchers. I believe we are at the beginning stages of teething. They also both now cry mamamamama when they want me.

My brother David's biological father flew in from Alaska this weekend and we had dinner over at Nana and Lennart's with him.  We all had a fun time reconnecting and he snuggled all the girls. We took lots of pictures for his wife who was very jealous that she couldn't come play with the kids!

Anemonae picked out some fabric and buttons and I made her a new dress last night. The pictures I took of it are just gorgeous! I can't believe how cute my kid is!

Alaya rolled from her back onto her tummy the other day! Alora still can only do it from her belly to her back though.  But she is doing it more often, she woke me up this morning because she'd rolled onto her back and gotten her arm through the crib slats.  They don't quite know how to control their limbs yet.
Nemi has been very into make believe lately. She lines up all of her stuffed animals and talks to them for hours. She also constantly brings them to us and says, "will you do them"  Meaning, make them talk.  I never thought I'd be so sick of making stuffed animals talk.

Sorry folks life has been hectic for the last week and now everything is getting back to semi normal I'll post a little bit longer item.  The twins have started babbling, watch the newest videos for some of that action!   They've also started drooling.  Daddy decided to jump on the cloth diapering train finally and got super upset that they kept leaking... come to find out he wasn't putting covers on them and they were just going right through to their clothes!  Nemi has stopped being interested in potty training at all. She won't even try, just says no I'm fine or I don't want to, or it won't come out.  So we'll give it a weeks break and start again. Any advice?  Candy doesn't seem to be a good enough bribe!  Neither does jumping up and down and clapping and squealing what a big girl at every "deed" 

I just added 4 new videos!

I just posted Alaya's first laughs caught on film!!! 

I quite often put the twins on the couch side by side while I'm sitting with them.  Last night Alora discovered Alaya for the first time. She turned her head to the side and saw her there and smiled and started cooing and chattering  at her doppleganger.  I can't wait until they start playing!

Nemi went to the dentist today for her every 6 month cleaning. We have a really cool dentist office. It's called under the sea dentistry and it's specifically for kids, all the walls have huge murals with fish everywhere, all the furniture is under the sea related and it's bright and cheery. They have specific policies about not using scary words and the assistants let the kids touch all the instruments ahead of time and call the dentist their friend that's going to come and count their teeth!  They also have huge saltwater aquariums and lots of toys and stickers and ice cream flavored toothpaste.  Nemi always has a blast playing with all the fishy toys and choosing her prizes at the end. She loves brushing her teeth too! She had her first xray's done this time and did a great job. I took a picture on my phone but it's malfunctioning and not letting me access the picture so until I find a way to send it there are no pics :(

Nemi has been increasingly difficult to photograph or video tape.  She gets very aggitated with me and covers her head and won't stop moving around. I have to take several shots just to get a passable one and every once in a while I get lucky. 

Grandma Martha made me a bunch of blankies when I was pregnant and one of them is covered in piggies. Alaya is enamored.  She stares at the piggies and coos and giggles and talks to them. It's so cute!

Nemi and I went berry picking yesterday with our friends Leslie and Sammie.  Nemi was very serious about her picking and wouldn't eat any berries at all. I thought she was the weirdest kid ever! What kid doesn't pig out while they are picking? We stopped and got honey sticks and juice and played on the playground at one of the farms. Them we came home and ate ice cream with berries on top.

Just had Nemi's 3 year photos taken. You can check them out here.


I get them on the 4th and will try and get them in the mail to everybody shortly after!

All of my girls had such a great time getting to know their Great Grandparents this weekend.  I got quite spoiled by having somebody there to hold and feed babies for a few days and now I'm so disappointed that they went home.  We can't wait to see you next year when we all come and see you!

My grandparents are coming to visit today. We started this week telling Nemi they'd be here soon, and Grandpa told her on Skype that he'd read with her. This morning I said today's the day, Grandma and Grandpa are coming to visit! She said, "Yeah and Grandpa will read me a story"

I've always hated making my baby videos public on youtube. But it was the only way to get them on the website so I did it. Youtube has recently allowed another privacy setting that allows you to make them private unless you have the direct link to add. The downside to this is that when I add them to the website there is no pretty picture or description of the video. So if you were going to the video tab and noticed the videos all look blank that's why.  I have just uploaded some new ones so check them out!

Nemi is turning 3 years old in a week!  I can't believe how the time has flown by.
For anybody wanting gift ideas, she is currently very much into My Little Pony and Yo Gabba Gabba.
She is wearing 4T clothing, Size 9 Shoes and likes bright colors, especially Blue and Purple. Her favorite activities are coloring, painting, and reading. 

Alora is catching up! She rolled over 3 times tonight!!!

Alaya rolled over again last night. Pretty soon she'll be a pro!

Yesterday we had a very fun barbeque with our good friends. My best friend Leslie, her son Tony, Tony's girlfriend Sammie and her 1 year old son Leland, and Sammie's brother Tony all came over and we had a great time. The guys all worked a little on our play structure while the kids played in the pool and at the park. The babies enjoyed being pushed around in their stroller. When it started getting dark we set off some pretty impressive fireworks. We had parked our cars on the street to utilize our giant driveway for the fireworks, apparently that left little space for some of the neighbors to set theirs off so they came over and asked if they could use a corner of our driveway. We instead invited them to come up to the house and do it with us. They had the most adorable 10 month old baby girl who was all smiles for Nemi.  The results were some new friends and a much more impressive fireworks display once we combined our stashes! We thought  it was so funny that the husband's name was also Tony and the little baby girl was Sammie also!  We asked the mom your name isn't Heather or Leslie is it? She smiled and said no, I'm Sarah.

Happy Independence Day!

All 3 girls got weighed and measured today. Anemonae is 34 pounds and is in the 75th percentile for both height and weight. Alaya is 9 pounds and in the 5th percentile. Alora is 9 pounds 10 ounces and in the 10th percentile.
All three girls are perfectly proportionate for their heights. I can't believe how tall Anemonae is now!

Today we held a huge work party. I couldn't believe how many people showed up to help. Some guy I didn't even know hung out and he was one of the hardest workers!  We separated into 4 groups, 2 for clearing debris and garbage, 1 for ripping off the shed roof, and one for rotating childcare. As the dumpster filled, another group started demo on our laundry room. The results, the laundry room is completely down to the studs, the shed is stripped and reinforced ready to be roofed tomorrow, the yard is completely clear of debris, and our garage is cleared out!
We are so tremendously thankful for all of the generous people we've collected in our lives.

I got the first smiley photo! It's kinda blurry but it's in the June folder!

I haven't put the girls in their footy pajamas in a week so last night when I tried I was flabbergasted to find out they didn't fit any more!  Out of newborn and into 0-3 months!
Nemi's also been eating nonstop all day long for the last couple of days so I'm pretty sure she's about to sprout into a 4T.  My girls are getting so big!!! 

Alaya is 8 lbs 3.6 oz and 21 inches long and 14.25 inch head
Alora is 8 lbs 15.2 oz  21.5 inches long and 14.567 inch head

Alaya rolled over!  I put her on her belly turned to grab Alora and when I turned back she was laying on her back! Probably just a fluke but WOW!

Anemonae is the wind flower that sprung from the blood of Adonis when he lay dying in his lover Aphrodite's arms. In greek it means daughter of the wind. It is technically spelled Anemone but we added an AE sound at the end and so changed the spelling. Just like the twins, Anemonae's middle name is after a loved one, Dan's late Grandpa Ardean.  We shortened it to Arden to feminize it.

A lot of people ask me about the twins names. What do they mean? Where do they come from?
Alora is an English name meaning My Sunshine. Dan chose this one first.
Alaya is a Basque name meaning Happiness. I chose this one after Dan vetoed about 5000 names.
All of our childrens middle names are handed down from amazing family members and mean more to us than just the definition of the names.

Alora started smiling for us last night!  Now they both are doing it and are super happy babies.  I woke up this morning and picked up Alora and she was all smiles. Dan even got her to smile last night :)

Shall I reveal their secrets?  Alaya is in Purple. Alora is in Pink.  In all other matchy photos I try to keep Alaya in florals and Alora in solids. 

My Grandpa Furst recently asked me why there were no photos of myself with my three daughters.  I was shocked that I hadn't even thought of it. You all know the answer... I'm the photographer!  So we took some time last night during Grandpa Landon's birthday party to let Daddy take some photos for once. And the results are some great photos of me with my girls and we even threw my mom in some of them. 

Nemi is super jealous of the babies and has been a little left out of everyday life.  But she's turning into such a good big sister and a helper.  She absolutely loves fetching things for me.  I have her go get me diapers, wipes, new outifts and blankets. She loves that she gets to pick out the babies clothes.  I do anything and everything to make her a part of everything that's going on and make it a positive experience. She also is a pro at throwing away diapers and taking dirty laundry to the basket.  We bought her a set of twin baby dolls and anytime the babies aren't in their rockers or carseats you can bet her babies are in them. 

And while she's busily becoming a good little mommy I'm failing miserably. I've already dropped a bottle of soap on Alaya's head during bathtime and yesterday I dropped the phone on Alora's head.  I feel like dirt. So now when they're grown up and you ask if their mother dropped them on their heads, you can remember I at least dropped things on each of their heads. 

Yesterday Alaya started smiling when I made funny noises and talked to her.  Yay!

Our friends daughter was doing a cookie dough fund raiser so we took a look through the catalog. They had playdough cookie dough. It came in 4 different colors so we bought some and last night Daddy and Nemi rolled it out and made a batch of cookies.  She had a lot of fun and there are pictures!  They don't taste that great, but who cares :)

Nemi's new glasses came in!  I just posted pictures in the June folder. We ordered 3 different kinds this time. A blue pair that daddy picked out, a purple pair with butterflies that Nemi picked and a pink and turquoise pair that mommy chose! 

We finally had some sun this weekend, even though the forecast called for rain all weekend.
Dan's brother came over on Saturday and Sunday and they started putting up the play structure in the back yard. By the end of the weekend they pretty much had the tower built. Now all they need to do is the slide and swingset!  Monday we went to the zoo with my best friend Leslie. Her mom is visiting from California and we took them and Leslie's son, girlfriend and baby boy Leeland with us.  We all had a blast and I've uploaded some photos of our outing. Apparently everybody else in Portland went too because the parking lot was full and Dan and I had to drag all 3 kiddos, bags, and double stroller onto an old school bus to shuttle us from the overflow lot a couple of miles away!  But we had a blast and it just proved that once again we can do this!

Life has been very interesting lately. Up until now the twins have been on a 3 hour schedule. Something I could deal with.  All the sudden they are all over the place, awake, alert, kicking up a storm.  Wanting to nurse at all hours of the day and night, sometimes every hour to two hours. 
People keep saying it'll get easier and easier. So why's it seem like it's getting harder first? 

This weekend we took the girls on their first road trip.  On Saturday we drove to Cathlamet, WA to visit their Great Grandma Kitty. Great Aunt Charlotte and Uncle Rex were visiting from Kansas and so several family members drove up to visit.  We ate a lot of food and left with tons of cake.  Nemi even had a nightmare on the way home about somebody stealing her cake.  I had to assure her it was still in the car with us :) 
On Sunday we drove out to my best friend Leslie's house to visit her for the first time. Her mom was visiting from California and I got to finally meet her after years of hearing about each other.  We all had dinner and somehow went home with more cake!  Dan's co worker's will be very pleased I'm sure because we made him take it all to work with him.
The girls did great and slept very well on the car ride! Nemi has been such a good big sister and so helpful.  The babies seats sit in the middle bench and she's in the back. She spends most of the car ride saying, " babies wake up! Open your eyes!"

Nemi took a face first dive off a tall rolling office chair tonight. Hit the hardwood floor face first. I thought she'd broken her nose at first. the rim of one nostril is all black and blue and she split her mouth open and it's all swolen up and her nose is all swolen too. She keeps saying her nose doesn't hurt and it isn't crooked so i didn't take her in but it's soo swolen even after icing and I'm pretty sure she's going to have one heck of a shiner when she wakes up. I've never been so scared as when I heard the crack of her face hitting the floor.  She took it like a champ, after the initial screaming and sobbing she was just happy she got to suck on ice and chew on a washcloth :)

Just got back from the pediatrician. The twins are growing very well. I just added their stats to the growth chart section.   The Dr. said I could discontinue adding formula to their bottles!

Watch out for some killer new pictures to come. And thank you to all the family members who pitched in to buy me my first Digital SLR camera!  I'm so excited to read the giant japanese manual and try to figure out how to turn the thing on.

I've been terrified of the day when we'd have to wrangle them all into their carseats and take them all out together.  Today was the day.
We went out to eat breakfast.  It went better than I expected. Despite the fact that Nemi sat down in the parking lot of Elmers and refused to budge, I had to drag her into the restaurant by one arm while hauling a carseat and diaper bag in the other. Then sling her like a sack of potatoes over my arm to get her into the booth.  Then shove her into the corner because she turned into a limp noodle. 
We then attempted Costco.  She screamed and cried the whole shopping trip. But we made it out alive with two sleeping babies and most of the supplies we had originally gone for.

Can it be it's been 3 weeks?  That they've been home for only one week?  Most people would say time flies... for me it feels like it's already been an eternity!  Don't take me the wrong way.  I'm so happy to have them home.  But I'm also exhausted and handling 3 children all by myself while my husband is working out of town.  I'm definitely learning what I'm capable of, and have been humbled onto my knees every night this week, praying I can do what millions of other moms have been able to do by themselves for many generations. While their husbands were out in the fields they did it with no help and had to tend livestock and wash laundry by hand. If women can have a baby in a field and stand back up and finish harvesting, surely I can handle a 2 year old and a couple of infants right?

Tonight I sit in a state between slight sadness and overwhelming elation.  Nemi was such a tiny baby and stayed small for such a long time that I was sure these two being early and twins would be the same. So many friends and family members went out of their way to find the most adorable preemie sized clothing for me. I'm sad to say I had to pack them all up tonight.  I'm ecstatic to say that even though they didn't wear so many of them even once... they've grown out of them at an alarming rate!  They are growing!  In no time they will be chubby happy normal sized babies which fills me with so much joy.  It's so scary having a preemie and seeing how delicate and fragile they are. Already they are opening their eyes and staring at their world, trying to hold their heads up, and melting your heart with the sweetest smiles.  So I want to again say thank you friends and family. I'm sorry I couldn't get pictures of them in each and every outfit.  I've boxed them up and I'll keep them around until I know if I'm having a niece or nephew in November. But I would never wish a preemie on another human being.

When my girls were in the NICU they had an entire layette set for parents with preemies. It made me so comforted to see them in normal clothes while they were there and in pretty knitted hats and blankets that people had donated. It felt less sterile. It detracted from the fact that they had tubes up their noses and IV's in their tiny hands.  I hope I can donate these clothes all to the NICU and they'll comfort another family in some small way.

Our first few days home have gone by pretty uneventfully.  We thought Nemi was taking it all in stride at first. We've done everything we can to make it a positive experience for her but she's still trying to be the baby again, and today at naptime we had a full blown freak out screaming/hairpulling/facescratching tantrum.  This is all new territory to me so I am absolutely clueless as to how to deal with it. All of my regular calming/bargaining techniques seemed to do nothing but enrage her more.
I've had bronchitis for almost 4 weeks straight now and it seems like there is no end in sight. I've been on antibiotics and a new inhaler for 4 days now and hoping they'll kick in soon!  In the meantime I'm exhausted, don't want to actually see anybody because I want to nap... and getting used to carrying two babies at once. Oh the diapers I will see.

We want to thank everybody for all their love and support. Our babies are both coming home tomorrow. I know everybody is dying to meet them. But we are please requesting some peace and quiet for the next week or two until we have our routine worked out. I have plenty of help in the meantime. I am not trying to hurt anybodies feelings. But we will let you know when we are ready for visitors. In the meantime I need every moment I have with all 3 of my children and every second of rest I can get. Thank you so much loved ones for understanding.

In the April folder I've added a couple of pictures of the girls new hospital room. I also started the May folder and popped in a couple of pictures showing the progress in their nursery at home!

The girls were moved to a new room today since their status has been downgraded.  They now have cribs right next to each other and are enjoying some time reunited.
Interesting how small the world can get. I was sitting in their room feeding Alora while the nurse was feeding Alaya at 1 o'clock in the morning.  She asked if I had a bunch of family here. I said no, mostly in Michigan. She said, oh what part? I said oh just a dink town called Berrien Springs.  She cracked up laughing and said oh I've lived there.  Apparently her husband studied at the seminary there and they raised their kids in Berrien Springs! Small world! I guess he's the pastor of the church in NE Portland now.

Baby girls have been upgraded. They are being moved today to a new room with two cribs instead of adjoining rooms with isolette's.  I'll try to get some pictures or video tonight I can post of their new digs.
Nemi is handling everything exceptionally well. She misses me constantly but we take full advantage of every moment I have at home and give her lots of snuggles and hugs.  She's getting as burnt out as I am though. This morning she saw me put on my coat and asked if I was going to see baby sisters. I said yes and she scowled and said, I No like baby sisters anymore!

The girls are doing great!  Breathing on their own, heat pads are off and they are regulating their own temperatures, IV's out and they are surviving on milk alone, their billyreuben counts are down and they are off the lights.  All we are working on now is training them to eat properly and gaining weight!

I've been home for a day but haven't really been home much.  The entire extended family is getting used to an entirely new routine.  I think everybody is benefiting from it except me!  Nemi has been passed from relative to relative getting more and more spoiled by the minute.  I of course am having hourly panic attacks because I've never so much as taken her to a babysitter much less let her spend 3 nights away from home and sent her on an outing with her Aunt and Uncle for the day.  If anybody really knows me, they know I'm a control freak.  And not knowing where, when and what my child is eating has probably been the largest learning experience of my life. I couldn't handle it any more though and insisted she come home tonight. Of course she was in bed fast asleep before I got home and I still feel like I haven't seen her in almost 2 weeks.
So on to what I've been doing.  Alora and Alaya are on a 3 hour schedule.  That is they wake up every 3 hours, get  a diaper, and feed.  We start at with Alaya at 6am, Alora at 6:30.  Then 9 and 9:30, then 12 and 12:30 etc. Until it's 6am again.  This was very stressful for the first day or two as I wasn't producing milk yet so if I missed a feeding they would get formula from a can.  And I wouldn't produce if they weren't demanding it from me.  Fortunately my body has figured out what's going on and that isn't a problem any longer.  It's also allowed us the freedom to skip 2 feedings at a time so that we can get 6 hours of sleep before going back to the hospital.  They have me on a rotating schedule now so I stay at the hospital for 2 feedings at a time, or about a 4 hour block.  The first feeding I'll nurse one baby while Dan bottle feeds the other, then the second feeding we swap babies.  Then I skip two feedings allowing the babies to take a break from learning to nurse and being held as the dr's have noticed being held too often can stress them out and trying so hard to nurse all day causes them to burn calories, therefore they weren't gaining any weight.  This new schedule has allowed them to get more rest and up their intake a bit more so they get a bit plumper while simultaneously allowing all of my hair to stay firmly attached to my head.  I even get a meal now and then.
Have I mentioned I'm not supposed to drive for 3 weeks?  This causes even more problems as of course Dan goes back to work on Monday.  So my mom's husband Lennart has now become temporary fulltime babysitter/chauffer.  Which is incredible of him. But as I lose more sleep I become crankier and crankier, and let's face it, everybody gets tired of each other after too much time together.  So I really appreciate him putting up with me.
That's the long and short of how we've been spending our time lately.  The nursing staff is incredible and I'm trying to figure out what would be an appropriate gift to take in to them.. somehow I can't even think of giving a bunch of nurses a fattening box of donuts.
The facilities are incredible.  The girls have adjoining Suites with their own space age beds that I've been learning to use, and built in couches that slide out into wider beds in the huge windows.  They have tons of storage space so you can bring in pillows and blankies or whatever you want and just leave them there.  The whole NICU is secured so only we can get in and has a private parents room that has tv, internet, a kitchenette stocked with coffee, tea, snacks, free cookies, microwaves and fridges, tons of toys and books for toddler siblings. It's just absolutely incredible.

I've been discharged from the hospital so nobody try calling my room anymore, you won't get me!  I'll be home in a couple hours but I'll be going back and forth between nursery and home every 2-4 hours so leave me voicemails if you want me to call you back. The best time to call will probably be late evenings between 8-11pm pacific time if you want to get ahold of me.  I'll be trying to keep in touch!

Alaya is turning into a little piggy! She's been nursing like a pro all day and wearing me out running back and forth every 2 hours to feed her again.  Alora finally started getting jealous every time she saw her sissy snuggling mommy and they started squirting a tiny ammount of milk in her mouth and she kept it down so we've upped her milk and she's drinking from a nipple now!  Hopefully by tomorrow she'll be nursing too!  She's still having some trouble getting all the air she needs so they are still giving her a bit of air and keeping her in her little covered baby bed and only taking her out so I can snuggle her. They did a 2nd xray of her lungs today and it showed considerable clearing of the fluid just in one day.  Once again, it's absolutely normal stuff, nothing to be alarmed at. They both just have to learn a few things they normally would have been learning in my belly still!

My Doctor came to visit me this morning and said he'll be sending me home tomorrow.  The babies we aren't sure about yet. Alaya was doing great yesterday but during the night she had a little trouble keeping her temp up so it's just a day to day thing. She started nursing like a pro this morning though! So she's definitely on her way.  This also means that I'll be spending the majority of my time in the nursery. So if you are trying to call me or visit it'll probably be increasingly hard to get ahold of me.  I'll keep checking emails in between and try to update everybody regularly but my main function in life at the moment is pumping and nursing every 2 hours! 
The pediatricians also asked that we limit the ammount of visitors that handle the girls for the next few days, they just feel Alaya got a little stressed by having too many visitors yesterday so only Daddy and I are going to hold her until she's a little bit bigger.
Alora is still getting oxygen help right now and is not regulating her body temp very well so she has a warm little house she's all snuggled in right now.  They're also talking about starting a feeding tube since she's just not interested in learning how to suck yet.  The doctors say this is all very normal for a preemie her size and absolutely nothing to be concerned about. They are just itty bitty babies and need a lot of attention and some time to grow!

The pediatrician came in tonight to talk to me and said since I haven't gotten my milk in yet we're going to start some formula tonight! I'm so excited to start these babies on some real food. So far they've been getting a glucose mixture through IV and I hate seeing them hooked up to all that.  So we're still going to practice nursing, but we'll also be using a tiny tube beside the nipple so they are actually getting some formula while they are nursing.

I was finally able to get into my wheelchair and take a roll down to the nicu at around 2am.  We attempted nursing the first time. They told me not to have too many expectations since they are preemies and that even just nuzzling is a great sign. Alora is the larger of the two and pretty lazy :) But after about half an hour she decided to try it out!  She isn't really sucking yet but she latched once.  Alaya is a little gobble monster and latched right on and sucked!  I can't wait to see them again today.
Alora is my little squeaker she makes little squeaky protest noises and is very vocal where Alaya seems more content, but she's stronger and keeps wiggling out of her swaddling clothes! They said it's very normal for the smaller one to be more feisty because she's had to fight her whole life already.  They sure are cute! One of the nurses gave them a bath and their hair is so silky soft and very dark. I haven't seen their eyes open in the light yet though to tell you whether they are brown or blue. I'm sure it'll take a while to be able to tell for sure :) 
Nemi got to meet them yesterday briefly and she said Alaya was soooo cute, then exclaimed there were two when she saw Alora. Then she got bored and decided climbing in the window was much more fun. 
I'm missing her a lot, she got to spend her first night away from home with Nana and Lennart. I can't wait to call her this morning and see what fun they've been having!  They called last night to say night night and Nemi was so excited about her new nightgown and sleeping bag they got her :) I can't believe how much more resilient they are than me!

I haven't been able to get out of the bed yet, the anisthetic made me a bit sick. But I was able to pump some milk and send it to the nursery. Dan got to feed both babies and they sucked it all down and ate really well!

The c-section went great! Alaya Linden was born weighing 4 pound 8 ounces and 17 1/2 inches long.  Alora Charlotte was born weighing 5 pounds 2 ounces and 17 inches long.
They are both doing incredibly well and are staying in the NICU until they prove they can retain their body heat on their own and can nurse properly. They said they'll take me down their tonight to start trying to nurse and as long as everything goes well they'll be able to go home with me within the week!
I just uploaded a bunch of photos!!!

On Tuesday I'll be 35 weeks! I can't believe what a crazy ride this has been.  I've uploaded my final belly shots to the film strip above. The next time I wear this shirt, maybe I can button it up again!

I went to my last ultrasound this morning!  Baby B is looking great, all of the iv fluids and bedrest have raised the fluid levels in her sack so she is out of danger.
It's still low enough that we are delivering via c-section on Tuesday at 10am.  Both babies are in weird positions making it impossible for a normal delivery. But we're so excited to meet our two new bundles of joy!  The neo-natal specialists say that babies this early will probably stay in the nursery for 5-10 days while they evaluate whether they are gaining weight properly, have learned to suck/swallow/breathe, and can regulate their body temperatures on their own. 
These babies will only be born 1 week earlier than Nemi was so we are very positive that they have a great chance of having a short stay.  Baby B of course will probably have a longer stay as she is quite a bit smaller currently than Baby A. 
Gosh, I can't wait to start calling them by their names!

We are back in business! At least temporarily. My parents bought a new camera and loaned it to us until we are able to buy our special high tech fancy schmancy new one. :)

The dr this morning says that he's going to go forward with another ultrasound tomorrow but that he's confident he's sending me home tomorrow and we're scheduling a c-section for one week from today on Tuesday April 19th. 

I had another ultrasound this morning to check the fluid levels of the babies. Baby A is doing great. Baby B is on the lower end of safe levels so they've decided to keep me in the hospital until Wednsday monitoring the babies to make sure they are safest, and if I go into labor again they will just let me have the babies. On Wednsday we will do another ultrasound and make further choices from there!

I started feeling contractions pretty strongly around 10pm last night and they were coming every 5 minutes. I called the nurse and she told me to come in. I spent the next 8 hours taking drugs to stop my labor while they did lots of tests to see if it was indeed preterm labor.  I turns out it is. And they finally decided it was best to just let my body do it's thing. They took me off the meds, and of course I instantly stopped my labor. So I am sitting here in the hospital and if I start contracting again they are going to take the babies out. If not I'm just sitting here for the next day for no reason being monitored.

We just bought and installed a new webcam so we should be Skype ready, but we haven't tested it yet!

I got my 2nd steroid injection today. This should cause the babies lungs to mature withing 24-48 hours so if they are delivered soon they will be able to breathe on their own with no complications.  Now the only things they'll probably need help with are learning how to nurse properly and regulate their own body temperatures. Both of these things they would keep them in the nursery for until they master, but it's nothing that will put them in any bodily danger.
Which means, we're ready to have some babies when they are ready!

Just got back from my ultrasound. The babies are running out of room and the Dr feels it's necessary to deliver them very soon. They gave me a steroid shot today, and I'll get another one tomorrow to speed up their lung growth. Then I have another ultrasound monday morning to make sure they aren't in distress. Then they'll monitor me every couple of days until they are sure the babies absolutely need to be taken out. They want me to at least make it until Tuesday which will put me at 34 weeks and in a relatively safe zone. 

We seem to have some kind of USB issue. Dan bought and fixed up the new computer, but everything that was a USB device connected to the old computer seems to be fried. Our webcam is dead, our camera was plugged in and also is fried. I tried putting the webcam on my laptop with skype and it doesn't even register, no power. So whatever happened it fried all of our electronics and we're in a slight state of non-communication :) My parents loaned us a camera, but with no cord to hook it up I can't put any pictures on a computer!  Sorry folks!

 I'm adding my latest belly picture to the header strip above. My camera situation is still not fixed so it's poor quality taken on my cellphone. But thought everybody would still be interested!
I'm 32 weeks pregnant now.  6 weeks until my scheduled delivery date of May 10th. 
I am huge, miserable, and ready. :)  It hurts to sit, stand, walk, lay, or anything else.  I'm constantly huffing and puffing like an asthma patient, and waddle like an 80 year old penguin.
I'm ready to have some babies. Now.

On top of our camera breaking, Dan just hasn't gotten the new computer up and running properly, our webcam microphone isn't working either, so we can't Skype right now. I apologize to everybody. You'll just have to get in touch with us the old fashioned way :)

We've had a tragedy in the house. The family camera has stopped working. I feel like a little piece of my soul has left my body :)  We just spent a bunch of money on a new computer, so of course something else was bound to fail. Isn't that just the way things happen? So I apologize, but for the immediate future there will be a slight lack of updates until we figure out our next step. I had already been hinting at a fancy new camera, but wasn't really serious about it. So we'll see.

My baby shower was today!  I left my mom in charge of the camera, which means all the photos are out of focus :) But they are all in the March folder.
This time people actually came to my baby shower! My mom threw it at her house and supplied a great spread of food.  Our old family friend Athena came, my best friend Leslie and her daughter in law Samantha and her 1 year old Leland.  My Sister in law Geri and my niece Rachael drove me out there.  And Landon's mom Martha and his stepmom Sally and step sister Angela who is 9 months pregnant with her 2nd baby and due on Thursday also showed up. 
We all ate and then I opened my presents.  We were given 2 highchairs, lots of baby clothes, diapers, some home embroidered bibs, shoes and ruffly socks, swaddlers, a moby wrap and a cute baby book.  Nemi made out like a bandit, she got a new dress, my little pony playset, my little pony stickers, and a huge tub of plastic food for her kitchen!
I'm so grateful for all the love and support everybody has shown us. Thank you!!!

The Doctor's office called today and scheduled me to check into the hospital on May 10th at 8am to have these babies.  Of course, if I go into labor on my own before that all plans will change. But it will definitely not be any later. Sorry Grandpa, couldn't wait until the 16th :)

I'm 30 weeks and 2 days.  I had a Dr's appt today and he said I'm doing very well and the babies look great.  I passed all my labs with flying colors.  He's scheduling my birth for 38 weeks but we'll see if I make it that long, he says twins rarely do. I've gained another 2 pounds for a total of 10 pounds.

I had another ultrasound this morning. The babies are just 3 pounds each now.  They are both looking perfect!

A couple of months ago I got contacted by our niece Skye wondering how I'd feel about her coming out to visit for her spring break.  I of course was ecstatic and we decided to keep it a secret from the whole Beals family to make it extra special.  Of course Dan was the only other person in on it.  For the last 2 months I've kept my mouth shut while we've secretly plotted.  She arrived Monday and it was the best thing in the world watching my father in law cry as he saw his grown up granddaughter for the first time in probably 10 years.  I of course sobbed a little bit as well. The cousins all adore their cousin Skye and she's not afraid to get down on the floor and rough house with them.  So expect lots of cousin photos this month! We only wish her brother Scott could have been with her, but his spring break and her's did not line up.

My lab results came in. My one hour glucose test came back absolutely glowing, I got a 98 which is excellent, so no chance of gestational diabetes :)
My iron levels were only slightly low, she said 11.5 and they like to see a 12, so they suggested a low dose iron pill which I was wondering about anyway since I'd been so tired, and haven't really been eating a lot of meat or greens this entire pregnancy.
So all things considered, all 3 of us are insanely healthy and doing great!  Still waiting on protein count for a 24 hour urine collection test which will tell us if my slightly elevated blood pressure is just normal high blood pressure, or toxemia related and if it'll affect the babies or is easily treatable.  For now there is nothing to worry about, but they wanted to make sure before it gets too much higher.

I had my 28 week checkup and the dr said he's very happy with my progress. I've gained a total of 8 pounds. My blood pressure is slightly elevated so they are going to do another test to determine if it's just normal high blood pressure or something we'll need to be concerned about.  I did my glucose test and had a ton of blood drawn. I'll probably know the results of all of those today at some point.

I was skyping with my grandparents and my grandma asked how potty training was going. I said eh, pretty good. She still won't poop.  Guess what she did when we hung up? That's right! POOPED on the potty for the first time!!! I gave her tons of chocolate which may have been considered a pretty good bribe, but I wanted it to be memorable for her :-D

This last weekend I went to Seaside with my mom and a friend she works with named Shellie. The 3 of us had a blast and did a lot of shopping. It was my last girls time out before the babies are born.  Nemi stayed home with Daddy all week and when I got back she was speaking in full conversations!  I couldn't believe how much a kid can change in 3 days.
Last night it started snowing again and this morning we have a few inches and it is gorgeous!

We woke up to snow this morning. I can't believe it waited until February!  Check out the photos section because Nemi and I immediately bundled up and went out and played until we were sopping wet.  I got some great video but the weather seems to be affecting the internet and it's really lagging so I'll try uploading that later.

I just put my 26 week belly photo in the film reel above. I'm getting huge, and carrying very low. It's getting very hard to walk without feeling pain in my lower abdomen. So just taking it very easy and slow right now.  Only 10 weeks until the Dr wants to deliver me!!!

Spoke to soon I guess. The computer is back down, and the printer/scanner are fried. So.
I had a great ultrasound today and the babies were fighting back this time, kicking the monitor the whole time. Way to go girls!  I got some great photos and took pictures of them with my camera and put them in the photos section. They aren't the greatest since my scanner is busted, but they'll have to do!  I can't believe how different these babies look than Nemi did when she was that size. 

After many hours Dan got the computer back up and running, it only needed a new stick of RAM which he had lying around.

Please forgive me if I don't post for a while. Our computer has stopped working and my laptop is fairly slow and has limited space available for pictures and videos.  I tried for 6 hours yesterday to upload a new video without success. So until we are up and running again I'm afraid all I can do is check my email!

Last night Dan's brother Matt and his family came over and brought with them a giant inflatable hamster ball!  The boy spent close to an hour inflating it, but it was well worth it.  All the kids took turns.  My nephew Robert got rolled all around the front yard. At first Nemi just liked sitting in it but towards the end she wanted to be rolled pretty roughly like Robert.  Rachael enjoyed sitting in it too, but wasn't really able to roll it around. I'm adding several videos and pictures!

Just an update, As the Doctor told me he would either be inducing or performing a c-section by around 36 weeks, that would mean we are probably expecting the babies around 4 weeks earlier. So start planning for a birth at the end of April!

Today Nemi had her dental cleaning.  6 months ago at her last one I had to hold her down while she was screaming.  Today she sat in the chair all by herself and let the Dr clean and floss just like a big girl!  They said her teeth are beautiful and perfectly spaced, her last 2 year molars have completely cut the surface and we should be done with teething for a while!  Then she got a new toothbrush, stickers, and a rubber ducky.

Had another checkup today. Babies are doing great. We discussed my delivery options. Slightly complicated, but it goes like this. I could opt for just going for a c-section and delivering 2-3 weeks early. Or, I could try to go natural, they would induce 2-3 weeks early. But ONLY if either: Both babies are head down, or, Baby A is head down and Baby B is measuring smaller or the same size as Baby A. If they are both feet down, or if Baby B is bigger than Baby A we'll have to do c-section.

Currently Baby B is larger than Baby A, but they are both head down. So we'll see! 
The other complication is if I do a c-section they are willing to do a tubal ligation at the same time. If not, the dr is kind of hesitant to also do a surgery and suggested Dan do a vasectomy instead. 

Nemi's hands seem to have done a lot of learning this week. She now has enough strength to flush the potty on her own. And she also learned how to turn doorknobs so she can walk in on you in the bathroom or invade any room she isn't supposed to be in.  Now nothing is safe! 
Potty training is going very slowly. She'll still only do #1 on the potty, but she is insanely proud when she does and exclaims, " I did it! Flush Potty, then Jelly Bean?" 
Dan has decided that she's going so many times on the potty now that we need to find sugar free treats to dole out instead of mints and jelly beans because he thinks she's getting too much sugar :)

We measured Nemi today and she's exactly 3 feet tall!  We're all going stir crazy in our house wishing the weather would warm up so we can play outside soon.
I think everybody knows by now but the twins are both girls!  I'm steadily working on the nursery and preparing as much as possible.

Nemi has been especially fond of her feet lately. She talks to them. I heard her in the car the other day and looked back and she was waving her feet in the air, then exclaiming, You did it feet!  She cracks me up!
Oh and

Need Numgee Gapa book, means she wants the Hungry Caterpillar book. That one took me forever to figure out.

We went to the doctor today to get a quick baby checkup and this time it was a new lady doctor.  I really liked her, I also really like my regular doctor so it's nice to have a backup!  She said that my twins were very healthy and that she rarely saw such nicely developed and healthy twins and was very happy. I have gained a total of 1 pound and I had been concerned. She said, like with Nemi, that since I'm heavy already it's perfectly fine if I don't gain any weight. My blood pressure is also way down and looking great. We're over halfway done with this pregnancy and so far everything is wonderful!

It took a few tries but we got Nemi counting to 10 on video and I've added them to the video section. Watch them all!

No new info. The ultrasound tech said he won't even look for another 2 weeks that he doesn't believe that's enough time to tell gender accurately and that it's too early. Next ultrasound January 20th.

This morning I'm back to the Dr's office for another ultrasound at 10:30. Let's hope this time these babies cooperate and we can tell the gender!!!  After that, I'll pop home for some quick lunch, then back to the office for a checkup.

Up until the last few days Nemi's been counting 123 perfectly and then mixing up the rest. But last night in the tub she was picking up her tub toys  and putting them away and counted to 10!!! Perfectly!!!

Take a closer look at the newest belly picture in the film strip above. I'm 20 weeks pregnant now, which is exactly halfway for a normal pregnancy, probably over halfway for a twin pregnancy as they tend to come a bit earlier.  The babies seem to have moved into a more side by side position and boy does it show!  They also are kicking me a lot more now.  Although Baby A on my right seems to be a little more docile and sleepy most of the time, Baby B on my left is constantly kicking up a storm and definitely let's you know if you've bumped or layed on that side too long :)  We go back on Thursday for another ultrasound and hope to be finding out genders for sure this time!

Up until now we've been seeing Nemi's eye Doctor every 4 weeks to treat her lazy eye. Today we went in and he saw such improvement he said we didn't need to come in for another 4 months!  She's showing remarkable progress and there is no crossing as long as she wears her glasses.  She's been so good about wearing them recently she even asks for them some mornings when she wakes up.  We have progress!

I'm in the process of uploading about 20 videos from the past few weeks. They should all be up by Wednsday morning!  Several are from Christmas and a few of the family playing our piano. Then just some random Nemi videos which are always the best.

Wowee! It's over. haha!  This year we did 4 separate Christmas celebrations and it really was too much for me. 
Friday night we went to Dan's brother's house and had dinner and a mini celebration so Papa Roy could give all the kids their gifts from him. They all had a blast and Nemi conked out as soon as she got home.
Saturday morning we woke up early and I made a nice breakfast for us and we opened stockings and Nemi's few gifts from Mommy and Daddy.  Her stocking had a lot of musical instruments and stickers and she's been tooting around the house ever since. 
Saturday afternoon we headed to Nana and Lennart's house and spent the day with them, Grandpa Landon and Uncle David. We had a wonderful lunch and Nemi had another stocking and a bunch more presents to open.  What a spoiled baby girl!  She even got to open a present early because she dunked her dress in the potty and needed a change of clothes :P
Sunday we headed out to Grandma Kitty's house and met all of the cousins there where the kids once again were spoiled rotten and opened tons of toys and we ate very well again.
I'm pretty sure I'll start gaining some weight after this week! 
Nemi has so many new toys and goodies to play with she's been running around like crazy and doesn't know what to play with first.  But she definitely slept well this weekend!

Well, these babies are very elusive and will not give up their identities just yet.  I was  hoping to give a nice gender Christmas surprise to all our relatives but it's a no go. We'll try again in 2 weeks. Jan 6th

I made burritos for dinner. I asked Dan if the seasoning was okay because last time it was too salty. He said eh it's kinda boring.  Later I tried to get Nemi to take just one bite of her burrito. I said, "it's yummy!"  She replied, "No it's not yummy mommy, it's boring".
Thanks Daddy.

Anemonae has now figured out how to undo buttons on her clothing. Which means she is now constantly naked.  She throws off her clothes and squeals I'm Naked! 
She's finally working on her last two 2 year molars. She's had the lower ones for a good 6 months and the top two are finally making a horrid appearance. She's a grouch.  And that's an understatement. 

Nemi has now learned On and Off, and Up and Down.  She spends approximately 60% of her day turning all of the lights on and then turning them back off again.  This drives me mad.  She also jumps up and yells UP! then squats and yells DOWN! over and over.
We've also been working on training Rosie a bit every day. Nemi is very into this process and sits in between the two dogs doing their tricks with them.  You say sit, and all 3 sit.  Then when Rosie gets excited and licks me... Nemi licks me too. Yuck!

Last night I'd been laying on my side talking to Dan and I rolled to my back and put my hand on my belly. One of the babies pushed off my hand and moved away!  I squealed and Dan put his hands on my belly and we sat there for like 30 minutes while he felt the babies moving around. It was sooo cool!!! We also got the stethoscope out and were listening to them moving and I even got one of their heartbeats whooshing away.  We weren't able to do this stuff with Nemi until she was much bigger because she was sitting so much further back. I guess with two in there one is pushed all the way to the front!!!

Of course just as I start hard core potty training the washing machine goes out! So we're on a slight hiatus until the part comes in on Tuesday. As soon as Dan fixes the machine, we're back to the big girl potty!

Every year my mommy friends and I do a secret santa for all of the kids. This year Nemi's Santa was Felicita and her son Christian. They mailed Nemi a Leaptop from Leapfrog.  Nemi is nuts about this mini laptop!  When she wakes up in the morning the first thing she asks for is her computer. Where poputer? 

I am determined to potty train this kid by April. I will not be changing 3 sets of diapers! And when will I honestly have time to potty train after that?
So far she's been doing really well at going about half of the time on the potty.  But only peeing.
So today we switched over to big girl undies, and she's already peed on the couch and on my lap a few times. It's not been a great first day. She doesn't seem to care about being wet like most kids do. And she doesn't seem to understand that she doesn't get the jelly bean if she pees on me. Only if she pees in the potty.  She'll announce I peed, get jellybean? 

We went to lunch with Nemi's great grandma.  Daddy asked her what time of year it was. She looked at her wrist and announced, "34!"

This girl is good. Her glasses have been "missing" for almost 2 weeks. We've torn apart the entire house. I was sitting on the couch today thinking about where else they could be and I looked at her and once again said, Nemi, where are your glasses?  She giggled and said right here mommy! And pulled them out from behind the chair.... Really? What a pain!
I asked her today if she wanted baby brothers or sisters and she grinned really big and said Brover!

Nemi and I took a trip to the doctors office for my checkup today. She spilled all of her cheerios all over the exam room and kept the nurse hopping.  They all love her there and give her stickers :)  The Doctor came in and said he wasn't going to examine me any further because he didn't want to torture me any more than he had so he did a quick ultrasound instead. The babies are getting so big! they are already up to my belly button!  But they are crammed tight against one another with no more room to move :) I told him that I was wondering what was going on because 2 weeks ago I could feel one on either side and now I was only feeling one area of movement. Poor kids, they're probably punching each other in the heads repeatedly.  I can't tell you how incredible it is to see them both on the screen kicking and moving their arms next to each other.  Nemi knows exactly what it is too, she always looks up and squeals, " There baby! In mommy's belly!"

Check the videos section. I just uploaded several new ones!

I took my catheter out yesterday! I was so scared that it wouldn't have worked. But it seems like my Dr. knew what he was talking about. It's been 24 hours and I'm having no further complications. So keep praying and sending good vibes my way for a continuing normal pregnancy!!! I feel so much better! I can run around and chase Nemi again and do all my housework that is very far behind at the moment.  But I think these babies have gained 5 pounds apiece while I was resting because every time I stand up it feels like a bowling ball drops inside my belly!  I can feel baby B wiggling a lot lately. Baby A seems sleepy and only moves when it gets kick by it's sibling or something. I have a checkup tomorrow!

Nemi has been an absolute angel through all of this and so understanding of my limitations. Bringing me blankets and remotes and books to read. We've had a fun time snuggling in bed and watching dvd's and reading books. But I can tell she's happy to have tickle fights again.

Today I am thankful for this.


And this.


And especially this.

One of the things I love the most about Anemonae is her affinity for books. Now every parent has at one point or another realized that the house is suddenly too quiet and gone off to investigate. In my case, you can always find her in one of two places, either in front of the bookcase or on my bed. Either way she's surrounded by books and quietly telling herself stories. Today it was on my bed. I've been rereading my box set of The Chronicles of Narnia because the new movie is coming out.  I found her in a pile of pillows, the box on her head, and surrounded by the books trying to read 3 at once. Check the picture page :)

I've always been told that morning sickness is something that comes on early in pregnancy and stops midway. I had none with Nemi and I've had none really this time. Until today. I feel like God is laughing at me and telling me, no more free ride Heather! Give me a break!  I'd love just one day off from feeling crummy.

We woke up this morning to a pretty dusting of snow. Nemi oohed and ahhed out the windows.  The dogs ran around like crazy things, Gizmo 3 legged to avoid getting one paw in the snow :)

The Dr. told me today that he'd like me to keep my catheter in for another week to allow my uterus time to move up on it's own. He told me to take it out on my own next monday morning early, and if I can urinate on my own at that point than everything is resolved. If not he'll try to intervene again at that point. I can't say I'm happy at having to wear this thing for another week, but the upside is I don't have to go through the pain of the procedure again to move my uterus. 
I can tell already that these babies are going to be trouble ;)  I can't help thinking they must be little impish boys. We'll find out on December 23rd though!

I had a rough night and ended up back at the hospital to get a long term catheter put in. The doctor wants to follow up with me on Monday. I'm doing fine, just uncomfortable.

I've been having some slight complications with this pregnancy which is affecting me and not the babies. But I haven't mentioned it to anybody because it's pretty embarasing.  My uterus is so tilted that the babies are resting on my urethra causing me to be unable to pass urine.  The dr assured me that although it is a rare disorder the babies almost always move up as the uterus grows and it corrects itself.  Well it had been 2 weeks and I was in agony.  So when I went to my ultrasound appointment today I complained. When they did the initial scan they were in shock that my bladder was 3 times the normal size, and they immediately rushed me to the hospital.

The good part is they immediately put a catheter in and drained my bladder which caused unbelievable relief. The bad part is that they had to do a very painful procedure to move my uterus up in my belly. The hope was that it was big enough that once them moved it, it would stay up and out of the way.  Well, it didn't. Within an hour it had shifted down again. So I am monitoring overnight and if I start having problems again I have to go get a long term catheter put in and have the procedure repeated in a few days.  There's no real risk to the babies, but it's very painful and they don't give me any pain meds.  So I'm hoping and praying to get through the next few days easily!!!

The ultrasound turned up two very wiggly healthy babies, but the pictures weren't that great quality as the twins are very low in my belly still.

Nemi's growing into quite the character. Usually when I ask if she's hungry she says yes and allows me to ask what she wants to eat. Now she just says, uhuh chicken. It's always chicken. Except today. Today .. it was ice cream cone. HUH?

She's also learned Awwwww. When the cat or dog come up she says awwww and burries her face in their furry backs and gives them hugs. When she bonks me with her rock hard head she says awwww and kisses it all better.  A variation of this occured last night when she started saying Aww man.

Nemi picked out a new hat at Walmart today. It's super silly with giant cat ears!  I posted pictures of it. 
Our next Ultrasound is on Thursday November 14th. Lennart got to go to the last one so I'm bringing Landon to this one. I don't expect much has changed since it's only been 2 weeks!  But I still can't wait to see their tiny fingers and toes again.  And everybody loves pictures of babies.

I'm starting little by little to feel movement. This time I know what it's supposed to feel like so I'm picking it up more easily.  Last evening was the best. I was sitting on the couch and Dan came home and sat next to me and started talking. The babies instantly started flipping and jumping around in my belly. I think they know who their daddy is :)

Nemi had her first cereal with milk today. She picked all the cereal out with her fingers and dumped most of the milk on her chest :)

My doctor referred me to a great nutritionist. I've been a little worried about the tiny ammount of nutritional foods I've been consuming lately. She was so nice and tailored a diet plan of all cold semi-non scented foods that I could eat. My main concern this time around is to avoid the high blood pressure that lead to Nemi's early arrival.  So we are working on a high calcium, high protein and high iron diet.  I learned today that if you eat citrus with your iron rich items that it will help break the iron down better so you will retain more!  So interesting!  I love learning about this kind of stuff.
So, on to Nemi. She insisted on having to go potty, ran to the bathroom, gripped the toilet seat with both hands, plunged her head halfway in the bowl and started sniffing furiously! EWWWW! Are kids supposed to be this gross? hahaha
She is however obsessed with brushing her teeth. Every time she potties and washes her hands she thinks it's time to brush teeth. This kid probably has the cleanest teeth in Washington State.

No. Not cravings, more like, what can I actually still eat? Meat is totally out. Unless it's the microwaveable kind. Processed nuggets and fried chicken you nuke.  Pretty much I've been living off of:
Braeburn Apples and cheddar cheese slices
Baked potatoes smothered in cottage cheese
Cereal with Ice cold Soy milk

Notice a trend? Most of them are cold items that have no real scent. If I can smell it, it's sure to make me gag.  Even the laundry detergent this morning made me gag. I'm sure to grow anemic at this point from lack of iron. Praise those good old iron supplements and prenatal vitamins!
Oh, and I've put on 3 inches in under two weeks!  These babies are grow grow growing!!! But I've lost a few pounds? Maybe it's because I can't eat anything!

Nemi's adoring all the extra apples that I've been buying though.  And my sister in law Geri had bought her daughter a sweet new bed and kept her white crib "just in case" So we have two cribs now.  We bought Nemi a big girl bed yesterday so we could use her old mattress for one of the cribs.  We're pretty well set now on nursery items! I need some more cloth diapers though!

So, scratch my previous list of baby needs! Apparently I need more than I thought! Add one more swing, one more bouncy seat, one more carseat. hahaha!  I'll need lots of preemie sized clothes because these babies will more than likely come earlier than Nemi did and she was in preemie clothes when she was born!
Our world has exploded in this amazing way. Two small miracles. My husband and I laid in bed last night gazing at each other wide eyed. And he said, well? We have this amazing huge house, we have an extra room, I'm working, and it's going to be okay! And although I saw terror behind his eyes and I sure felt it behind mine.  We're okay. I told him I wished he had been there with me.  I remember the Dr. telling me that Baby A had a heartbeat of 175 and then the entire world faded out and it was just me and the monitor and I couldn't hear anything else but that heartbeat. I could see my babies heart beating, see it's feet kicking, fingers flexing, a tiny nose. Then I saw Baby B and another heartbeat came on, I didn't have the chance to hear what the heart rate was. I was lost in this serene moment, realizing I was witnessing something many others never have or ever will. That there is a God, and he gave me this incredible gift that I didn't know I wanted. I was told I could never have. He obviously has big plans for us and we have been provided with this incredible opportunity to grow and learn and become something bigger than we ever imagined.

That's right folks. We're going to need one more of everything. Yup. It's twins. As in. Two babies. In my belly. New due date is May 24th, apparently I was about a week off. The dr is also pretty sure it's identical twins!

Only two more days until I get to see my new baby on the ultrasound screen for the first time. I may make myself sick with anticipation! 
And to answer your question NO we will not be finding out gender until around Christmas. This is just an anatomy scan to make sure baby has all it's fingers and toes :)
I pulled out Nemi's 12 week ultrasound photo to show Dan about what we'd see, and I'm so glad I kept a scrapbook with notes. It said when we saw Nemi at 12 weeks we saw her kick on the monitor and saw her hands and feet clearly. In the picture her head was very large, but you could still see all her limbs and body parts. She was definitely a baby already! I'm so excited! I promise I'll post a picture as soon as I get home!!! My two dad's are going with me to the ultrasound to help watch Nemi, and well, because they've never seen an ultrasound and are very excited to do it :)

Nemi and Mommy went trick or treating this year for the first time! Daddy had worked a 12 hour graveyard shift the night before so we let him sleep.
We headed over to Papa Roy's house to show off her Raggedy Anne costume. There we met the good little witch Rachael, Batman Robert and Pirate Aunt Geri. We all went out trick or treating and took lots of pictures :)

I keep getting asked what else I need for the new baby. Some even have complained that I already have too much stuff and they won't be able to get me anything. I assure you this is not true :) We are registered at Target and at Baby's R Us. You can either view the registries online, or go to the customer service desk and they will print you out a list you can take shopping. They will even tell you where a specific item is if you have something in mind.

For those of you who don't want to use the list, we always need diapers, wipees, Playtex dropins bottles, rings, nipples, recieving blankets, swaddle wraps, diaper bag, pump, white crib sheets, mattress pad, all in one cloth diapers, carrying sling or pack, bathtub, clothes, and anything else cute you feel a baby needs :)

What we definitely don't need... Blankets! We got probably 3 times as many as we needed for Nemi, half of which we never even used! I couldn't get rid of them because it seems that every female extended family member knitted her a special blanket! haha
We've been offered 2 hand me down carseats already, we have a double stroller and a highchair, we have a crib but are still looking for the perfect wide but low dresser that I can use as a changing table on top. We do not want a separate changing table.

I think that about does it! We'll be a little more specific when we know the gender. My parents are already joking that since I bought a double stroller I'll more than likely have triplets just to throw things off :)

Nemi got new frames today, she had pulled one arm off and both nose pads. The lady at the office felt sorry for her and transferred her lenses to a new pair, they only had blue, but they are still super cute!

We are currently having some computer issues. Please forgive us if we don't update the website for a little while. I can do the journal through my laptop but all the photo software is on the main computer.

Baby girl is coming down with a cold, I suppose autumn brings all kinds of delights ;)
Man I wish Grandma was here to help me organize my office and turn it into a nursery. I'm so overwhelmed! My office is looking kind of like hers :-P
I have absolutely no idea what to do with everything.

So I've been a member of an online community of ladies who were all due in July 2008 with their first babies for almost 3 years now. Over the years we've all grown close and I'd met 4 of them on my Michigan trip a couple of years ago. Tonight I got to finally meet the lady I've been closest to emotionally and physically. Her name is Angela and her daughter Mika is 2 days older than Mika. We all had dinner together, husbands included, and the girls were best friends in minutes. I posted a couple of videos. By the time we went to the cars the girls were holding hands while walking and best friends. We had suck a wonderful time, I wish they were even closer and could do it all the time.

We went to Costco today with Papa Roy.  Nemi and I rounded the corner and there were these giant stuffed horses sitting there. Her eyes lit up and I put her on it. It's for riding!  Papa Roy saw her on it and immediately grabbed one for her and cousin Rachael.
Nemi hasn't left her horse's side since. I posted pictures! I'm uploading a video now.

I'm starting to feel guilty already that this website is named after our firstborn. Should I start a separate website for the new baby? Or should I just rename this site and continue on with a shared site?  I'd love some feedback! I can't help but think keeping up two site's might be a little harder. And that tons of the new photos will include both of them.  If I renamed this one, what should I rename it to?

Nemi and I took our new van for a spin and joined Nana, Lennart and Uncle David at the beach this weekend. We stayed in Long Beach Washington. It was absolutely gorgeous. They have a huge boardwalk and the kite festival was going on.  We also went to the kite museum and Marsh's free museum to see the alligator man, it was pretty interesting.  They also had the Seaburg H Model Solo Orchestrion which was one big case that had a Piano, xylophone, 68 pipes, giving violin, piccolo, flute and clarinet effects, mandolin attachment, bass drum, snare drum, tympana, cymbal, triangle and castanets. I got a great video of it playing.

I just loaded a bunch of new videos and pictures. Everything in the October folders is new!

Who knew the secret to potty training laid in a simple blueberry jellybean?
Apparently it only takes one.  We've got a long ways to go, but today she's already gone 5 times!
I bought her some big girl undies last week and I'm gearing up for the switch soon.  I'm determined to conquer potty training by the time this new baby is born!

I went to the Doctor today, I was hoping it was an exam and I'd get to hear a heartbeat, but it ended up being an intake exam. We filled out a ton of paperwork and I answered a ton of medical questions. Then they sucked all my blood and made me leave a sample. I have an ultrasound set up for Nov. 4th and an exam on Nov 5th. Exciting!
We should be able to know the gender sometime between December 12-26. I'll post when I know the exact date!

Nemi loves playing with her trainset, she lines them all up in the window track of the picture window instead of on the train tracks.  She also loves shopping with mommy. When I get her ready to go to the store she coos, Go Shopping? She's been a wild child lately, all full of energy and love. She loves hiding behind a chair then squealing peekybooo! Then she'll start saying Momma Love yoooooo!  She'll say it over and over until her voice is so high it comes out in a squeak :)

Nemi's sibling is growing and growing and it's amazing to me how different this pregnancy is. With Nemi I really didn't feel anything until the 3rd trimester and I never got sick.  I still haven't gotten sick with this one, but doing the dishes makes me gag, changing diapers makes me gag, thinking about food makes me gag... sigh. do you see a theme here?  I'm also feeling every little stretch in my belly as it expands for the baby, it's like a mild cramping accompanied by a tightening every once in a while. I remember those with Nemi but not until after 20 weeks or so. Everybody told me it'd go a lot faster with this one, guess I didn't realize how fast!
Tomorrow is my first baby checkup!!!

Nemi's very into the care bears right now. Every time I give her a new diaper she demands the care bear needs a new diaper too. She cooks up pretend food, rocks them and sings to them. She calls them her care bear babies.

My pants are already not closing! I can't believe it's going so fast this time. I've decided I should just wear pajama bottoms for the rest of this pregnancy, and that everybody should send me a pair of 3x pajama bottoms so I have plenty of room to grow :P hee hee
Nemi is so cute she rubs my belly and gives it kisses and says mommas baby. Then she pulls up her own shirt and says Nemi baby? So cute!

Check out the 2 new videos I just posted! Nemi learned how to paint this week. :) 
Mommy and baby #2 are doing well, nothing exciting to report!  Dan got called in on an emergency shutdown at a grain mill and is working 12 hour days, which is of course tough on him, but I'm thrilled he has the work!

I do believe I've told everybody important and can post it on the internet now, if I missed you I am gravely sorry.  But here goes. We received a surprise visit from the stork!  A new baby is on the way. Due May 15th.  Nemi is going to be a wonderful big sister. She's so kind to other babies she plays with and loves taking care of them and hugging and kissing. 
After the initial shock wore off, we realized that God must have a bigger plan for us and that he's never wrong.  This baby is a miracle not an accident. Children are always good surprises.
I think everybody knows we are in a tight situation at the moment and that has not failed to cross our minds.  But we have a great support system and several mommies who we've passed Nemi's stuff to who are hanging on to pass it back if we need them. I can't think of anything we'll need except cloth diapers and eventually a crib! So thank you so very much to everybody in our lives, we're so happy to share this time in our lives with you.

Last night we went to the annual Capital Pacific Bank picnic/bbq. We always take Nemi so Nana's coworkers can squeal over her. Plus there are 2 other toddlers within 2 months of her age to play with.  She learned how to blow bubbles! She's really good! She also learned the ins and outs of horseshoes from Nana's boss.  They had a big bounce house that she tried out, but she wasn't that impressed with. And since it was set on Nana's boss' property, there were horses just outside the fence. One gorgeous one came up and I took Nemi over. He was a sweet thing and came right up to us and let her pet his fuzzy nose.  All the kids thought the horse was the most beautiful thing ever! Sigh, I miss living in the country! Uploading pictures now!

I just uploaded a few more videos!

My daughter is a cookie monster! Ever few minutes I swear she's grinning cheesily and saying.  Peeeeeese Mommmeeee cuckeee peeeeese?

We went camping this week and had a blast. I'll try to get photos loaded soon. Nemi wore herself out so much she just kept laying in the middle of the trail when we were hiking. So cute!

We've been a bunch of sickies this past week. Nana passed her cold on to Nemi who passed it on to me. So we've had a very grumpy baby and a very tired mommy.

Nemi and I were picking our first ripe tomatoes in the garden and she snatched one and ate the whole thing like an apple!

I just uploaded some new videos!

Last weekend while garage saleing I found 3 stuffed Care Bears. Nemi had just seen a couple of the movies and was hooked so I picked them up for .50 cents a piece!  I got home and realized two had voice boxes and replaced the batteries and washed them up.  Nemi instantly grabbed all three and has been toting them around everywhere ever since. She sticks them in her highchair and yells "eat" she hugs them and cuddles, she can't go to bed without yelling "Care Bear"
We have an addict!

Nemi wandered into the office this morning wearing a scarf on her head. She looked so cute I had to take a picture.  Then I realized it was the one I tied on the dog yesterday after her bath! hahaha!!

We had a glorious weekend. Friday afternoon we visited with our best friend Leslie. Nemi had a great time playing with the baby in residence Leland, he's 6 months old and Nemi hugged and kissed him and brought him toys and they laughed and giggled and squealed. Friday night we spent the night at Nana and Lennart's to spend some time with their kitties. They are in Italy this week and off to Finland next week. 

 Saturday morning we woke up, went out to Sherry's for breakfast and stuffed ourselves. Then I took my brother shopping.  When I got back from that we called and went back to her house for more baby playdate. We then piled in the car and met my brother David and walked the farmers market. After that we dropped him off and headed back to Leslie's to pick up her son Tony and his girlfriend and we caravaned to several garage sales. It was garage sale mecca!  There were signs at every street corner all over Beaverton! Even the local highschool was hosting one. We went late so we got super deals on everything, people were begging us to purchase big sale items for almost nothing! Dan loved this giant china hutch but it had a $100 tag on it, it was well worth the price but we of course don't have that to spend. She said oh please I don't want to drag it back into the garage. Seriously! $2!!!! OMG! We finally said yes and gave her $20 because we're nice :) And they were donating all of their proceeds to breast cancer research.
We finally made it home to two very antsy doggies and sorted through all of our purchases with big smiles on our faces. Nemi crawled off to bed bedraggled from all the excitement and playtime.

I took Nemi to the eye Doctor again this morning. He said she's making tremendous progress! We're able to taper the dilation drops to once a week instead of twice and just keep her glasses on. We go back in two weeks!  So happy this is almost over. She'll probably always need glasses but no more lazy eye!

Anemonae and I drove to Cathlamet today to spend some time with her Great Grandma Beals.  We all went shopping and then back to her house for some fried chicken and potatoes.  We all had a good time and Nemi stole all of Grandma's strawberries off her plate.  I love that Nemi gets to have a close relationship with her, I remember how wonderful it was to get to know my great grandparents.  I enjoy so much listening to her stories and insight about the world.  Not to mention the calming view of the river from her front porch.

A few days ago I found a little red wagon at the thrift store for $14.99.  Nemi instantly jumped in it and grabbed the tongue like she was going to ride it down a hill. I picked it up and now she's carting all of her dolly's and stuffed animals all over the house.

We're having camera difficulties at the moment so I'll try to keep you updated verbally, but there will be very few pictures posted until the camera can be repaired.
Sorry family!

This is Nemi's favorite book.  She runs around all day, asking Poky Puppy?
I have to admit, I'm so sick of reading the Poky Puppy book I'd rather not ever see it again. But she loves it :)

We spent the last 4 days at Grandma Kitty's house helping her out with some porch repairs.  We all had a relaxing stay and when we got home our peach was ready to pick!  I'm adding pics now of us eating it!

We are in hardcore teething mode!  Nemi just popped a 2 year molar!  And 3 more are right at the surface pushing through.  I'm hoping this explains some of the grumpiest behavior yet!

We took Nemi in for her 2 year well child visit.  Doc says she's perfect!  Her new stats are in the My Developments page.

Sunday we decided to just get away from the craziness of our lives for a day.  We headed for the farmers market which is my fave place in this city during the summer!  We had kettle corn piping hot from the kettle. Corn dogs, Gelato, and lemonade.  Nemi played in the park and a balloon guy made her a butterfly balloon.  By the time we got home it had wilted, and Danny sat down today and started crafting 3 different kinds of dogs from the leftovers! Who knew he could do that! I had no idea!  He was better than the guy in the park!  Good to know we can still learn things about each other.  We also brought home some gorgeous lillies, while we were waiting for the husband of the vendor to make the boquet she came over and gave Nemi a bunch of fresh sweet peas for free.  Being cute sure has it's advantages!
We also met the new president of our neighborhood association this weekend and she is super nice. She's hosting a neighborhood cleanup and has gotten a lot of the local businesses involved, even free food and coffee and things for the volunteers. I can't wait to get involved.  She came over and thanked us for all the work we'd been doing on our home. It was so very nice.  She also told us the city sold the lot across the street and a convalescent home is going in for the physically disabled.  I'll hate the noise of construction, but I think it'll be much nicer than the overgrown lot that's constantly full of shopping carts now! 
To sum up the last few weeks, I registered for my fall classes today! I'm getting so excited to go back to school!

Nemi started jumping this week!  She crouches down like a frog and hops around.  Sometimes she hop attacks you while your sitting on the couch.  She's also addicted to wearing her doggy backpack. It has a strap attached for a leash, but we took it off and she just wears it around all day long.  She knows how to put it on and buckle it all by herself now! 
We're having increasing problems with waking up to a wet bed and have been washing her sheets and blankies almost daily.  Sometimes it's because she takes her clothes and diapers off, other's when she just leaks through.  Can't wait for potty training to be over!

Alrighty, went to the dr this morning.  Radiologist told him they couldn't rule out a break because of the swelling on the first xrays. So we did new xrays. Dr. said he didn't see a break in my ankle, then examined and the screaming he caused when he pushed on the top of my foot led him to believe I had broken bones in the top portion of my foot.  Additional xrays were taken. He said I had to stay in a cast on crutches, no walking until he had the radiologist look at the xrays. If I don't hear back in 2 days then call for results.  If it's not broken I should start walking on it immediately after, he said sprains heal faster if put to use. If it's broken then no walking for a while.

Grandma and Grandpa Furst came out this weekend to spent time with us for Nemi's 2nd birthday. We really had a blast spending time with them.  I'm sure we all ate way too much.  We got some great photos and made some even better memories.  Now Nemi is putting a person with the skype faces.

We had a huge birthday party today for Nemi, Robert and Rachael.  We had hoped to be able to put out sprinklers and a pool but the weather didn't cooperate, leaving us eating our food in the cold wind.  The kids seemed to have fun when we pulled everybody inside to warm up and let them attack all of their presents!  I'm uploading photos now, it may take me a couple of days to compile all the video footage!

Today we rented a wheelchair so I could get around town while my grandparents are here.  Nemi saw that chair and was enthralled.  She instantly ran around behind me and started trying to push me around.  She also loves riding on my lap and squeals wheeeee! 
We are busily preparing for birthday #2.  Last year we did a very low key at home with family kind of birthday, this year it's going to be huge for us.  Dan and I both don't really love big parties, and want to teach our daughter to be kind and grateful with no expectations so it'll only be once in a while thing. But I'm bending my morals for one year since my grandparents flew out here specifically for the event!

Aside from all the pain, I'm so happy to say how wonderful family is.  Yesterday morning I got an early morning visit from my father in law. He brought me the most beautiful orchids! 

Then today he was back with Geri and my niece and nephew in tow.  He announced they were there to help me with housework.  So sweet.  Papa Roy helped Danny cut our 2nd mirror for the bathroom, while Geri helped me pick up the house, do dishes, and vacuum.  Then we all went out back, popped the kids in the pool and hung out around the patio.  I with my foot propped on a paint can, doing what I love best, taking photos!  So there are lots of new pics of the kids playing and eating popsicles.  My mom also spent time calling me on Skype to make sure I was doing well.

My ankle is sure feeling much better, the pain is way down, but I've got some gorgeous eggplant bruises starting up! 

Mom made me go get xrays taken of my right ankle and left knee.  No broken bones, left knee is just way swolen and cut up and will take a few days to heal up. Right ankle is so swolen they can't tell if it's just an insanely bad sprain or torn ligaments. I'm not allowed to walk for a week. They have me in a hard cast and crutches. I'm supposed to ice 20 minutes every hour for the next 3 days and keep my foot elevated at all times. Sigh.  The pain is pretty intense. Hopefully by the time Grandma and Grandpa get here I'll be able to hobble a bit.
Nemi's having a great time riding on my lap in the rolling office chair I've been scooting around the house.  She'll come running and say Mommmeeee RIDE! Wheeeeee Wohooo!
On a more ironic note. My brother actually did the same thing to his ankle last week. My cast is more impressive than his though. We are both hobbling about together and he's allowed to walk on his now so he's been a great help.

I was shopping with Geri yesterday and as we came out of a shop I missed the curb and went sprawling across the parking lot. She tried to catch me, and both our purses contents went flying.  I skinned up my left knee and pretty much killed my right ankle.  I was so embarrassed I told her just get me in the car before somebody sees me!  Then I realized how my knee was bleeding and painful, and my ankle throbbing.  Got home, my ankle swelling to twice the size normal and iced like crazy all evening.  Mom came over and pronounced me probably not broken.  My brother David helped cart me around the house and bring things to entertain me.  Then they suggested borrowing Grandma Beals' new rascal. Sigh. Men will always find ways to make fun of you.  Almost no sleep last night due to the intense pain.  By morning the ankle had stiffened slightly and if I put the tiniest ammount of pressure on it my world exploded and I went into hysterical sobbing fits until Dan carted me back and forth to the bathroom.  I currently have an office chair with wheels that is serving as my transportation.
Hopefully the swelling goes down and I heal up in a few days!

Momma gave Daddy and Nemi haircuts this morning. Pictures!

Nemi just jumped the babygate.  Here we go again. Sigh.
MONKEY!!!!

We spent Sunday, Monday and part of Tuesday at Great Grandma Beals house.  Nemi and I walked along the river, took Grandma shopping, and I painted her 3 statues on her porch. Dan stayed at the house and painted her porch and tended to some small repairs. Grandma Beals has walls in her kitchen and bathroom made of dry erase board so the kids can draw on the walls, Nemi had a bunch of fun scribbling away. We all had such a nice relaxing time.  I slept better than I ever have. In fact Dan said last night I snored so loud he kept nudging me and I wouldn't even wake up, so much that I kept him awake all night for once!  Nemi slept in her Great Grandfather's cradle, Grandma told me she was the 4th generation to do so.  I think that is so amazing!  I was so blessed to know even my Great Great Grandmother and remember her.  Grandma Kitty was telling me how she didn't really get to know any of her Great Grandparents. I feel so fortunate that Nemi has such wonderful Great Grandparents looking over her. A child can never have to many Grandparents. 

We went to Cannon Beach with Nana and Lennart on Saturday.  What a fun time!  At first, Nemi was terrified to walk on the sand. She made me carry her the entire way.  Then I broke out the sand toys and she was instantly into digging and building.  Nana walked her to the ocean with a bucket and they brought water back which made Nemi so happy.  When she'd dumped it all out, they went back for more and Nana dumped it all on Daddy's feet.  I'm uploading video of that now ;)  We took lots of pictures, ate a picnic lunch, checked out the shops and tried on funny hats.  Nemi decided to bend over at one point and try to eat some sand. She looked up at me with a sour face and didn't try it again!  Nemi is sleeping well tonight, and I'm sunburnt. :) 

I asked Nemi today if she needed a diaper.  She went careening down the hall yelling DIAPER TIIIIIME!  Then ran back flailing a diaper and wipee container!  I changed her, then asked if she could put the wipees back.  She nodded then instead grabbed it and ran to her bedroom and stuffed it into her dresser drawer.  Sneaky little monkey.

You'll notice there are a few weird pictures of Dan in the new photos. He's been teaching Nemi how to use the camera. She took those photos!

Anemonae is now tall enough that if she stands on her toes she can unlock the top bolt!  Uhoh!  We're thinking of installing a chain lock now high up. The bolt was the only thing keeping her from escaping! 

Nemi is now in love with Blues Clues.  She's picked up a bunch of new words from the songs on the show, and does all the hand movements with the host as he sings.  When he yells MAIL, she squeals. Meeeeeeeell!  When he says think think, she says tink tink and holds her hand on each cheek. 

It's summertime! We broke out the new pool! I'm in the process of editing some new videos, check back later for some new Nemi footage!

Nemi's been picking up new expressive sounds.  She now says Wheeeee, and Oooh this and Oooh that.  Just so adorable!  I finally moved her out of her 18 month clothing as she is getting to tall for it, but her 24 month stuff is still a bit baggy!

Today Grandpa Landon and I took Nemi to the mall.  We were there to get some tools from Sears and some tights from Old Navy.  Neither of us were successful in finding what we needed.  But we did realize the old horse carousel was open!  Nemi took her first carousel ride!  She was slightly unimpressed.  I sat her on it, and they put a strap around her waist.  When it started up I was saying wheeeee and she just looked at me like I was an idiot. Halfway through she looked at me with a straight face and said. Done.  I tried to get her interested in the mirrors or looking at Grandpa.  When it finally stopped she tried to throw herself off the side yelling DONE.  She didn't even smile once the entire ride.  Oh well. I had fun!

I realized a few days ago that when we were watching gameshows and a contestant yelled out a letter or number Nemi would yell it back.
So last night in the car coming back from the mall Dan and I started yelling 1 2 3 4 5
She yelled them back at us!
So we started the alphabet. Sure enough. A-Z She can say all the letters now!!! You just have to yell like your on a gameshow! hahaha

I was doing the dishes and noticed Nemi had wandered off, it was too quiet.  I finally tracked her down. She was sitting on my bed with a bag of tortilla chips crunching away. When she saw me she jumped then innocently said Cacker?  I don't mind she thinks that chips are crackers, but I'd rather she asked before she left crumbs all over my bed.

Dan's brother Matt, his girlfriend Geri and my niece and nephew came over last night, we played outside on the tire swing, and then had fun with sidewalk chalk! I just uploaded some really great photos especially of my adorable nephew Robert!

Today it was raining and our gutter started leaking over the side. The result was our entire patio flooded. I opened the door, and Nemi ran out into the wading pool our patio had begun and instantly sat down and started splashing in the rain. I raced for the camera and just added a little video clip. I ended the film with her little teeth chattering and popped her into a warm tub.

Just thought I should mention, Nemi is covered in sidewalk chalk in these photos, not bruises :)  I was looking through and realized some of the purple and blue chalk made her look like she was all black and blue!

I just uploaded a bunch of photos from my garden picnic birthday party yesterday.  It turned out absolutely beautiful.  It was so very nice using our newly cleaned patio and finally cleared backyard!  We're still finding bits of glass and garbage here and there around the property, but most of the rotting lumber and garbage has been cleared away!

Hi Grandpa! Thanks for your comments! 
Nemi absolutely loves the new dog. Rosie is so soft and loveable that Nemi just crawls all over her.  She's always loved Gizmo so much. Now she's in doggy heaven!

We adopted an Australian Shepherd from the Humane Society yesterday.  Her name is Rosie. She has long fluffy black fur with white tipped front paws and belly. She also has the saddest brown eyes you've ever seen.  What a sweetheart. She has been an outside only dog her entire life and has had it kind of rough.  Rosie has completely fallen for my brother David, so I'll feel bad when he goes home on Friday and I replace him with Dan.  But she is so calm and shy and sweet.  When you are typing at the computer she pushes her nose under your elbow and nudges for pets.

Nemi is a smarty pants. She's recently discovered that her potty turns into a step stool. She now drags it all around the house and stands on it to reach the light switches and says, "Light?"
She also drags it in front of the front door to unlock the door. Fortunately the potty blocks the door from actually opening, but boy we're in for trouble soon!

A little birdy told me that my Opa Wutzke just got connected to high speed internet!  I hope he will enjoy this website for years to come just as my other grandparents have. 
This week has been a busy one.  We just purchased a bunch of veggie starts for the garden, only some of my seeds came up.  So Nemi and I will start planting tomorrow! She has all her own gardening tools and loves digging in the dirt!

Nemi wouldn't eat her lunch.  She kept looking at mine and saying Pease?  I kept saying, it's the exact same thing and offering her bites of mine. She would get mad and yell Pease? 
I finally realized she wanted my fork!  I gave her my fork and she gave me her tiny plastic one and she proceeded to chow down.  Guess she doesn't like those plastic ones anymore!!!

Went to Nemi's eye Dr. today and he said the eye drops are working that she's stopped favoring the left eye and the right eye is crossing significantly less. He recommended one more month of drops and said by then she should be good!!! Yay!

Nemi has a pink stuffed bunny.  Today she was wrapping him in a dolly blanket and pushing him in the stroller.  I looked over and she was tucking him into the beanbag, covering him up, kissed his nose and said, "night night"
What a good little momma.

We had a great Skype chat with my grandparents in Michigan yesterday.  Nemi was all frowns and grumps!  Then the dog cut her foot open on a piece of broken teracotta on the patio and was rushed to the ER.  The vet said there wasn't much to do about a paw wound so he wrapped it up tight, gave us some antibiotics and just said to wash the wound after every walk really well and it'd heal on it's own.  Puppy dog sulked all evening, and was even allowed to crawl under teh covers in bed with us out of pity.

Nemi's new favorite toy?  The tripod!  SHe's been dragging it all over the office, propping it on chairs, opening and closing it. Who knew?
Mommy also learned a valuable lesson today.  Don't ever EVER walk away while Nemi is eating noodles.  Apparently she shoves them up her nose while your not looking?  I had to retrieve them.  YUCK!

They grow and learn so quickly!  Nemi just ran into the office with a blue star and said BLUE?  I said YEAH that's a blue star!!!!  She knows purple also.  She also loves stars.  At bedtime when we turn on her turtle that projects stars on the ceiling she gets real quiet and whispers shhh staaaaaars. 
Nemi is obsessed with her baby doll! She's such a girly girl. She drags the dolly around and feeds it from her sippy cup and wraps it in a blankie and rocks it.  I've named the dolly Inga.  When we got it for Nemi she was saying Ngop all the time so I thought Inga would be easy? I know... I'm weird.

Today was such a glorious warm day and we had the privilege of babysitting our niece Rachael.  After naps we took the girls into the garden and Dan weeded the veggies, Nemi helped and Rachael stared in silence awed by what her Uncle Danny was doing.  After she went home we pulled a giant Rubbermaid Bin into the sunshine and filled it with warm water. Nemi had a blast splashing in her makeshift swimming pool.

There is a cute little coffee hut by our old apartment that makes the best coffee drinks.  It's run by a really sweet lady and all of the employees are superb at what they do.  When they needed some help fixing up the place, Dan did it for free coffee.  That's how we got to meet Kelly.  She's a barista, and googled at Nemi every time we drove through. She also makes the best reeces peanut butter mocha on the planet.  I quickly came to learn that she had a little girl 3 months younger than Nemi.  Her name is Charlotte, and she has tiny whisps of red hair.  After many schedule conflicts we finally had a playdate yesterday!  The girls were both shy at first, then Nemi showed them her bedroom and we played all over the house. I didn't think it possible to find a quieter child than Nemi, but Charlotte is it!  She is absolutely adorable and so very sweet. She kept coming over to sit in my lap and they both danced, Charlotte pushed Nemi in her push car.  We had a blast!  Pictures!

This evening as I was uploading photos I heard a THUD followed by crying.  I ran into the baby's room where she was supposed to be sleeping in her crib.  There I found a little girl standing by the door.  Puzzled, I held her close and put her back into the crib.  She promptly screamed, threw her arm over the side of the crib and flung her whole body over the edge, neatly sliding down the other side and running to me.  In shock, I put her in again, she proceeded to do it 2 more times for my enjoyment. 
We are officially in a toddler bed tonight.  I broke the side of the crib dismantling it, so there's no turning back.

Anemonae, Dan and I are so incredibly excited to hear that my grandparents the Furst's are coming out for Nemi's 2nd birthday!  I've never been one for big birthdays, but who knows when they'll be able to be at another of hers.  So, I am going to throw a big family birthday party!  In the upcoming months I will be working on cleaning up the back patio area so we can have a picnic.  I'll post Nemi's wishlist on the side unless anybody is interested.

There is a video called Look what I can do now in the video section.  It shows Nemi doing all of her animal sounds and pointing out her facial features.  It took me forever but I finally got her to do it on camera!  Easter egg hunting ones are up too!

New Easter Photos are up!

Saturday we spent the day at Nana Gwen and Lennart's house.  They put together a beautiful Easter basket filled with gardening tools and seeds.  Then we had an Easter egg hunt. Nemi absolutely loved, but it started raining so we moved it indoors.  We finished off with my mom's famous goldenrod toast. Mmmmm. I love food you only eat once a year! :)

Sunday we headed up to Grandma Kitty's house and had a lovely Easter dinner with the whole Beals clan.  Cousins Cole and Robert started hunting eggs without Nemi and were kind enough to hide the ones they had found for Nemi :) Cousin Rachael ate her first brussel sprout and barfed it back up.  I can't blame her. All the kids had a blast, and of course one egg was never found.  Nemi ran around so much she was asleep by the time we exited the driveway at Grandma's!

Easter egg hunting videos on the way!

Somebody signed us up on a calling list so we are changing our phone # to 360-750-6644 

The phone # change will go into effect on Sunday or Monday.

We found a dolly stroller at the thrift store today for $1.99.  It was in beautiful condition so we brought it home.  The second we set it on the floor, Nemi went flying down the hallways carrying back her baby doll.  She promptly set it in the stroller and went strolling down the living room, teetering the baby doll back and forth like a crazed momma.  She then plopped down on the rug, pulled the baby out, fed her from her own sippy cup and kissed her on the nose.  I watched as she patted her back and hugged her, then put her back in the stroller and careened off in another direction.  How in the world do they learn this stuff?  She's never been around other little girls to learn how to play pretend.  Last night she brought pots and pans out and stirred up pretend dishes to feed to daddy and I.  What a sweetie.

We took the side off the crib and converted it to a toddler bed.  She bounced for a while, then grabbed her blankie and curled up and went to sleep! In a big girl bed!!!! I'm so proud!

Nemi is really starting to hit a language explosion lately.  She's been able to point out her anatomy for a while when asked.  But last night she came up to me and pointed to my nose and said Nooos, and my mouth and said Mow?  then my eye and said Yie?
Later on I asked her what sound  monkey made and she said ooh ooh ooh.  I started asking a duck, qack qack she responded, dog?  oof oof,  cat?  mow mow (at the highest pitch I've ever heard)  Then I thought I'd throw in cow, which we hadn't taught her yet.  To my surprise she said Mooooooooo! 

Today we had fun with cousins. I just uploaded a ton of new videos and am in the process of uploading photos of the cousins together.

Nemi's learned to say Woah.  Now every time we pick her up to bounce, throw, or spin, she yells, "wooahh woah woah!"
This morning I felt as if something was pinched in my lower back and I said, "boy my butt hurts"  Nemi piped up with, "Butt?"  I guess I have to start watching what I say!  Dan was rather amused.
Every time we get ready to go somewhere, and sometimes when we're not going anywhere, Nemi will put her shoes and coat on and run to the door and try and turn the knob saying "Go go go?"
She also says, "car?" to every one we pass.

I got an overwhelming urge for pancakes. If any of you have seen my kitchen you know it's impossible to cook pancakes.  So off to Elmers we went!  They gave Nemi an orange balloon.  She ate a TON, and Daddy won her a siberian tiger from the claw machine!

The first day of spring in Portland was absolutely spectacular!  It probably reached 70 degrees and my mom and I decided it'd be the perfect day to buy new plants for our gardens.  We also did a bit of clothes shopping and between the two of us picked out a whole new spring wardrobe for Nemi.  I got it all home and detagged, ready to wash.  Nemi instantly picked up her new bathing suit and insisted on wearing it. She struggled until she got frustrated and Grandpa Landon put it on over her shirt.  Then she grabbed her new frilly lavendar tutu/skirt and put it on, and her new straw hat.  Apparently then it was time to dance because she started humming and twirling in circles.  She's such a girly girl!  I'm posting pictures now :) These ones are for my grandma Furst!

 

I wanted to mention again, Nemi is having one eye dialated weekly to correct her lazy eye.  Please do not be concerned when you look at the photos and one eye is dialated. I know it looks a bit odd, but she is perfectly fine!

Nemi had her 6 week follow up appointment with the eye Doctor today.  He said her right eye is crossing less, but she is still favoring her left eye.  He suggested patching, but said good luck keeping it on. Then he said they now have a 2nd option!  They gave us dialating drops.  He said one drop twice a week will dialate her good eye and force her to use the bad eye.  It's still somewhat the rainy season here so we'd just need to use sunglasses on sunny days, but in 6 weeks we'd check back and see if it worked.  Sounds great to me!  My mom is uber jealous, because she had to wear a patch so long to correct this.  I say.... Serves her right for passing this condition on to my little girl!  hee hee

We also ordered some new indestructable glasses for Nemi.  We had gotten the ones covered by the state insurance, and the next day Nemi snapped one arm off.  They fixed the arm while we were there today, but we'll be keeping these pretty glasses for nice occasions and using her new durable plastic ones for every day use.  We tried ordering them in purple, but they called back and said the company that makes them has those ones on back order.  So I gave them two more color choices to check on.  Maybe it'll be a suprise!

Today was a yard day. It was gorgeous. I tackled the blackberry bushes, Dan mowed the lawn and moved bricks.  Nemi helped me move rocks, ate the tops of dandelions, tortured a beetle, and learned to dig in the dirt with a spade.  Then she learned the meaning of a deep cleanse. 

This week we had a great suprise! My cousin Chloe came to visit from Minnesota!  We had a fun quick visit before they headed back on the road. Just a bunch of college kids having an adventurous road trip for spring break.  Chloe, thanks so much for visiting.  It was so great to meet all your friends.  I hope you loved the redwoods!

Nemi is sitting in a basket of clean towels. She has two fresh washcloths.  She wiped her face down with each, then took her socks off, and scrubbed both feet.  Then blew her nose into them, scrubbed her hair, then started scrubbing her belly and legs!  All just sitting fully clothed in the laundry basket! Oh yes, I have video.

Nemi just said night night!  I was putting her down for a nap and kissed her and said night night, and she said nai nai.  Sooo incredibly cute!!

This is absolutely amazing.  Last weekend my mom and I attended the Home and Garden Expo in Portland.  There are always tons of sign up to win this or that.  But when I have in the past I've instantly gotten added to some timeshare's phone list who calls me nonstop for 9 months before I get off their list.  So this year my goal was to not enter anything.  Until I stopped by this furniture booth.  They said oh no, we're a family owned business, we promise we won't sell your info.  But you could win a free bedroom set.  Yah Right.  Okay, I'll enter this One time!  Guess what.  I WON!  I get an email this morning saying so, so I google the phone# and address and the company info and it's legit.  So I call.  The lady is so nice saying congrats!  So I ask her, I don't have to do anything wierd or anything?  Nope, just come in, we'll take a pic with the owner and go home with your new furniture.  So we rent a uhaul.  Drive a few miles, meet some really amazing people, they load up our uhaul.  And now I'm sitting in a daze, among piles of boxes full of brand new wood furniture!  Believe me... there will be pictures coming soon. I can't believe this happened to ME!

What a day. Nemi broke her glasses.  She wrenched them off her head and snapped one side clean off.  Now I have to figure out what to do, I don't think the state will cover another pair, and feel it would be useless anyway, because what would keep her from snapping those ones too?  So... to tape? To sauter? 

Then she was riding her tricycle in the living room and it tipped over, she banged the back of her head into the brick fireplace ledge, and has a huge welt on the back of her head and it cut open and her hair is all bloody.  Poor baby.  I tried to put ice on it, but she screamed louder when we touched it. 

Nemi's new glasses came in today.  They look absolutely adorable, and she doesn't even seem to mind wearing them!  Until she is alone in her carseat, then she rips them off.  So far they are a success, which makes me so optimistic that we won't have to patch that right eye to correct the crossing.

New videos in the video section!

An update about Nemi's playhouse... seems we made a very crafty doghouse.  Nemi won't play in it, but Gizmo thinks it's grand and has been taking her naps in it.

What do you get when you move and purchase tons of new appliances??? 

BOXES!!!!

What do you do with tons of huge boxes when you have a toddler?  Well, build a house of course!  Dan and I decided to take a well deserved night off to do something fun last night.  Arts and crafts! After Nemi went to bed we pulled out the bathtub and table saw boxes we'd been saving for the project, a staplegun, 4 rolls of tape, and a ton of sharpies.  We had a lot of fun and used every last inch of tape.  There are pictures loaded!

Four days of using her potty at least once daily!!!! This is absolutely phenomenal!  I never thought I'd be so happy about urine.

All the new videos are up!

Day 2 went well, er... Nemi peed in the potty before naptime, when Dan went to get her up, she'd taken her diaper off and was coated in poo....  

so there was a bath. 

But she's doing so well, and loves sitting on the potty and trying!

I just uploaded a few new videos, there are more coming. I've uploaded to youtube, but they are taking their sweet time authenticating them.  So keep checking in!

NEMI JUST PEED IN THE POTTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our first days in this house have been hectic to say the least.  Everything seems to be going wrong.  Including, our coffee pot breaking, our toilet overflowing in the middle of the night, sending raw sewage seeping into the shower and all over the floor, having to hire roto-rooter to come over at 1am to fix it. Finding out our oven and yes also our stove tops were both the wrong sizes and having to retro fit them.

And on top of it all Nemi is sick!  And... I am allergic to the new house!  I keep sneezing and sneezing. Sometimes 30 times in a day!  I can't figure out what it is, perhaps dust from all the construction? We borrowed Roy's air ionizer and it seems to be helping.  Nemi is getting over the tummy troubles, but has today developed a nasty cough.  She's in good spirits, but kind of clingy and tired.

This week she learned the name of her favorite dvd.  It's called Pocoyo.  And now every time she walks by the tv she points and yells Poco Poco!!!!  I tell ya, I'm so sick of watching Pocoyo!!! hahaha.

Today she also learned "pretty"  I had repainted her bookshelf, and today I put some sparkly flower appliques on and she pointed and said ooooh petty!  petty petty!  So adorable!

Anemonae has been extremely helpful unpacking.  Currently she is sitting in a giant box throwing it's contents onto the floor.  I guess that' her way of forcing me to deal with it? Such a stinker!

Nemi has had this annoying habit for the last month.  When she wants food she points at it and grunts EH! EH!  And every time we just say "please?"  It's taken a whole month. But today every time she wanted something she politely said Pease?  Pease? 

This is the defining moment of motherhood!  I feel like I've finally accomplished something.  I was calling her cavebaby and now she's a little lady!

As we've been unpacking Nemi has been having a lot of fun playing with boxes and their contents.  She recently realized there was a box full of her little plastic hangers.  Now she spends the majority of her day dumping the box out, then one by one stacking the hangers back into the box.  I wish I was so easily amused!

Our move went well. We are settling in nicely.  Nemi went right to bed in her new room with no problems.  Our cat is a little lost and wandering around mewing... all night long. 

I somehow am allergic to the house? There must be a lot of lingering drywall dust because I've been sneezing since we moved in.

It's 4am. Moving Day. I'm too excited to sleep.

For you out there that want the new address:

3211 NE 62nd Ave

Vancouver, WA 98661

We went on the hunt today for a potty.  But not just any potty.  The Potty.  I found the most adorable froggy shaped potty.  I wanted it.  Danny said, I think it should look like a real toilet, I don't want her to go around peeing on poor innocent frogs.

So that was it, we found a nice normal potty looking potty.  And Nemi loves it :)  After her bath before bedtime we tried it out.  She thought it was really neat and sat on her new throne looking regal.  She didn't potty, but it's a start!

Nemi decided to help me pack today.  She kept shutting her bedroom door on me and pulling clothes out of boxes. Then I opened her drawer to get some clothes out and she put her left hand under it and pushed it with all her might, trapping her poor little fingers under it. She started screaming and I had to pull the drawer out over her fingers to get them out.  Poor baby.  Her fingers are okay, but a bit swolen.

We have a toilet seat that has a toddler seat built in that folds up into the lid.  Nemi sat on the potty for the first time today!  She had again taken her diaper off when it was wet, then she ran in later and looked at me and said look, and grabbed the front of her diaper, so we took her to the potty to sit.  She peed in the diaper on the way to the toilet, but I think she is really understanding what wet is, and not liking it.  The fact that she's telling me when she's wet is great!

Nemi got her first all over hair trim last night.  Up until now I've just been trimming her bangs, but I realized she was growing a mighty fine mullet.  The front was significantly shorter than the back.  SO I mustered up all of my courage and finally cut into those precious curls in the back.  I only cut off about 1/2" But boyo did those curls curl tighter and now it looks so short!  But at least she's on the way towards having a real head of hair! 

This morning Dan and I were talking in the hallway and we heard Nemi say, "Dada Mama"  So I opened her door and she said "LOOK!" 

Nemi was standing in her crib, PJ's unzipped down to her knees.  Her diaper thrown to the floor.  And yes, those PJ's were also very wet. 

This is the 2nd time she's taken off a wet diaper. I wonder if she's ready to potty train?

My mom and Lennart are on vacation in Mexico. Today we went to their house to feed their two cats and give them some love.  On the way home we realized it was so beautiful that we really should be outside!  Well, I said, The zoo is on our way home! So we took the zoo exit on the way home and spent 2 hours letting Nemi run free. When we got to the Tigers Nemi saw a little boy standing at the glass, his mom said he was only a few weeks older than Nemi.  Nemi was instantly in love.  The little boy was shy and kept smiling at Nemi.  Then Nemi just threw her arms around his neck and gave him a huge hug!  His parents both went AWWWWWWWW!!! And took tons of pictures. hahaha, it was sooo cute!  She walked and ran until she couldn't walk any more.  She all the sudden started stopping at every park bench, crawling up and sitting on it to rest.  We then turned around to head for the gate and she didn't want to walk at all. She would grab one of each of our hands then lift her feet up so she was dangling and we were carrying  her.  I told Dan I remembered my mom and dad swinging me like that when I was little. So home we went swinging our little monkey between the two of us.

Can you believe on Monday it'll be 5 years since Dan and I officially started dating?  I have to say, it's been the best half decade of my entire life.  And the last two have been especially incredible.  Watching my baby grow with my husband at my side, and now making our house a home with our own two hands.  It's absolutely amazing.  As we keep finding new fun projects to put into our house and tilling up the soil for our new garden I think about how hard life was for those before us.  They built their own homes, provided their own produce and worked incredibly hard.  I wonder, did a love like this make it as easy to get by during the rough times as it has for us?  We have had a fiscally devistating last year. But I can't remember being happier at any point in my life.  Through every new challenge, Danny has been right at my side. Supporting me, finding new inventive ways of getting by.  This Valentines day, maybe instead of getting your significant other flowers or chocolates, sit down, look them in the eye.  Remember your hardest times together, how you stuck by each other's side.  How you can get through anything as long as you do it together.  Remember those funny little stories of what you did when times were the roughest.  I know you have some.

I've just uploaded a bunch of new videos and some photos so have fun!

I've gotten a lot of new videos this week and some good pictures, but haven't had the time to post them yet! I'm uploading them to my computer now and as soon as I'm done editing I'll post them all.  I realized I hadn't put a new video up for a while so I will soon I promise!

Matt and Geri got Nemi the Vtech bouncing giraffe.  She loves it sooo much!  Unfortunately that means she pushes the buttons nonstop all day and there isn't a volume control.  It's definately the most obnoxious toy yet.  Thanks guys! :P

This week Nemi learned how to jump out of her playpen. I had put her down for a nap at the new house in the playpen and when I realized she just wasn't going to sleep I went to retrieve her.  She wasn't in the playpen!  Of course I was nervous, did she fall and hit her head?  Today I decided to try again and watch her through a tiny slit.  What did she do?  Stood by the edge, lifted her foot up until her ankle was on the side of the armrail, practically doing the splits! Then she pulled herself up onto the ege, straddling the rail, then hopped over the side!  What kind of genius hercules child did I breed!!!

Last night I was awakened by terrified whimpering on the baby monitor. I immediately realized she was in distress and ran into her bedroom where I could see she had been sleeping sideways on her belly.  She had one leg through each slat and was sunk down to her crotch with both legs through the bars... stuck.  Nemi was pushed up on both arms and trying to pull herself up whimpering at me.  Her chubby thighs took a minute to push back through the bars and she instantly was fine again.  Crazy baby!

Nemi's had a bad cough and a slight fever all this week.  She's been very clingy and tired.  We've been getting a  lot of rest.

Somewhere Nemi picked up the word uhoh!  She was taking a bath this evening, and she knocked all of her toys over the edge of the tub and exclaimed.  UhOh!!!  To my recollection, I've never uttered the term.  Where do they learn these things?  Oh! And Danny picked Nemi up this evening and she said. Love You!  Awww!!!

Maybe I should explain the tub toys?  Nemi has these squirty plastic animals that are tub toys.  Every tubby time she splashes them around then lines them up one at a time on the edge of the tub while I name their names.  Bug, Caterpillar, Bee, and Star. The bug is a non-descript kind of beetle thing, so I just call it bug.  She then flings them back into the water and lines them back up making me say the name of each.  It's a routine we happily play at every evening.  There was a snail at one time, but I think it disappeared under the couch.

Please check the new photos. I'm finally getting the hang of my new camera and getting some of the best photos I've ever taken!

I started this website for our families around the world who don't get the opportunity to watch Nemi grow. 

So I thought, why not ask you what kinds of things you'd like to see or hear about?  Are there any specific types of photos or video you'd like to see?  Are there certain developments you'd like to learn about? 

Please leave a comment on the Guestbook page, and let us know what you think!

At Nana's work Christmas party, Nemi saw some ladies using giant exercise balls as chairs.  Ever since she'll carry around her ball and use it as a chair. She's getting quite good at balancing on it.  This week she also learned that her slipper's that Oma made have a grippy paint on the bottom.  When she walks on our laminate flooring it makes a wierd almost sticky noise.  Nemi thinks this is hilarious enough that she learned how to put them on herself just to walk around in circles and giggle at the noises they make!

Dan and I have been sick all week. Fortunately Nemi hasn't hardly gotten an sniffle all year!  I'm so amazed with her immune system. She got a cold once about a year ago and that's the only time she's ever been sick!  I think 18 months with one cold is amazing, I keep hearing of all these babies with ear infections and coughs.  My tip: LYSOL it apparently works!  We lysol the doorknobs when we clean and the light switches.  Especially when we've had our school age nephew over.  You mom's out there know what I mean, school kids bring everything home!  And tons of hand washing.  I also started mixing a tiny ammount of orange juice in her water when I started getting sick to up her vitamin c and to encourage her to drink more liquids.  It works, when there is OJ in the water she drinks twice as much twice as fast!

Nemi had her eye checkup today.  The new eye Dr. said her eyes have slightly improved and she's getting new glasses with a slightly lower prescription.  He did say that we need to be more dilligent in getting her to wear the glasses and gave us a couple of tips.  The new glasses won't be here for another 4-6 weeks.

My daughter is addicted to a tv show called Pocoyo. We don't have cable. But I saw it in the bargain bin at the grocery store for $4 and brought it home. It's so adorable and Nemi squeals and claps her hands and dances to the music. I'm in love! She loves it so much she'll even leave me alone while I'm on my exercise bike! 

Somebody told me I should compile a list of the words Nemi says.  She said, you'll probably be shocked at how many they are.  Well I did, and I AM!  I had no idea she said so many things!  I started a new tab above just for Nemi's words. 

Nemi is turning 18 months old on Saturday.  I can't believe how much she's grown!

She now can put on her own shoes, she puts her coat on, she tries to put her clothes on, but can never master getting them over her head. She's very good at putting her arms in the sleeves on her own though.  She loves buckling her backpack, but can't undo them yet. She hands them to me and makes me undo it 20 times a day just so she can buckle it again.  She has mastered the zipper, velcro, and some buttons.  She also knows how to take her diaper off if she's not wearing pants.  Running, squealing, learning to talk.  16 teeth. 

I can't wait to find out what's next.

Dear Family and Friends,
Due to some security issues I have decided to password protect Nemi's website. You will now have to request to become a member of my website, I will only approve those close to our family, and you will have to log in with a password and name every time you visit.  I'm very sorry to have to go to this measure. 
This is for the security of our family. Thank you so much for understanding.
Heather and Dan Beals

Last night we had Dan's family over and Nemi hugged her baby cousin and said "Rachael?" 

She also just said Turtle?  To her light up turtle!

Thank you God, for family and friends.  Thank you God for giving Dan his job back.  In one paycheck, I was able to finally get all of our bills caught up, back up to date on our student loans, and have enough left over for groceries. 

Over the past year we have had an outpouring of love and generosity that has pulled us through this incredibly difficult time.  People gave us food, sent us gift cards, toys and clothing that they were no longer using.  I don't know how we would have made it through without your kindness.  All of you know who you are. When you are marking off what you did in the past year.  Please include "changed the life of a young family."

Nemi has started hugging.  She runs up to you, you pick her up, she throws her arms around your neck and just squeezes and hums mmm mmm mmm while she hugs you. Some times she puts her arms around you and pats your back.

This week she also learned to wag her tongue back and forth. No idea where she got it from, but she runs around the house making the wierdest noises. She even waggles her tongue when she's crying!

Please check out our house blog for our latest updates on the new house!  We're making some exciting changes!

http://ourbrickranch.blogspot.com/

We are having our first snow!  It's snowed probably 2 inches in the past few hours.  If you get a chance please head on over to the video section for a great video of Nemi in the snow!

This was the best Christmas of my life.  Nemi was so full of awe.  She woke up Christms morning and saw a tricycle under the tree and went nuts!  She wouldn't concentrate on any of her other presents because she wanted to play on that bike all day long! The next day we went to Grandma Kitty's house and met up with all of the cousins.  We had a HUGE feast and then let the kids open all of their presents.  Nemi wasn't paying attention as her boy cousins opened theirs. But when she opened the ball popper and Daddy set it up, her eyes went round and her mouth was wide open for hours!  We got a lot of video coverage, but it will probably take me a week or so to get it all up.  I forgot my camera so I have to get it from everybody else's camera's!  We still have Christmas #3 to do with my parents on New Years Day!

MERRY CHRISTMAS FRIENDS AND FAMILY.

We are so blessed and grateful to have each and every one of you in our lives.  I always strive to chose the best people to surround myself by.  People I can learn from, look up to, and who will enrich my life.  Thank you for being those people.

We hope your holiday season is filled with love, peace, confort, and the true meaning of Christmas.  Family togetherness.  Work hard to build precious moments that will last a lifetime.  This year, let things go.  When a family member takes it to far, or annoys you.  Remember how blessed you are and let it shine onto others.

This year I am so thankful that my husband was by my side and got to watch my daughter grow and learn.  Even though he was unemployed for most of a year, he never missed a single milestone. 

Even the simplest things can mean so much if you just look for them. 

Love,

Dan, Heather, and Anemonae Beals

As we are grocery shopping or cooking I always tell Nemi all of the names of the vegetables I'm using.  Usually she chatters away in gibberish.  But today, I said Potato.  And she very clearly uttered back... Totato?  I said potato again and she chirped Totato!  I'm so proud :)  Tonight we are having baked totatoes and hamburgers. 

This week Nemi has started interacting with her stuffed animals and dollys.  She'll hand one to you and she'll hold one and she'll make them interact with each other.  She's also obsessed with taking their clothes off and putting them back on. Unfortunately she can't get them back on herself so every 2 minutes she shoves a naked baby and it's clothing into my hands to redress them!

Nemi has this stuffed Leopard cat that my Great Aunt Nancy Riess gave her while we were in Michigan visiting.  Nemi adores this cat and she drags it all over the house and has to sleep with it.  This morning I put out some chopped up blueberry pancakes as a snack and I caught her trying to feed her cat pancakes.  Then when we turned on music to dance, she was swinging around holding him by the paws and making the cat dance!  Sooo adorable.  But my camera is on it's absolutely last legs and I got no pictures.

Nemi had her checkup today and she was 25% for weight and 75% for height!  Guess she's taking after me!  Dan was a short round kiddo.

It was a hard checkup.  Nemi remembered her last shots so she started screaming as soon as she saw the exam table.  She got two shots today and she had her teeth painted with flouride which we'll brush off later tonight.

They reccommended a new eye doctor covered by her new insurance and said we could take her to a dentist any time now for a checkup and to get her used to going.  They recommended a kids dentist just up the street.

We attended our first holiday party of the season!  Nemi and I drove downtown to the Fox tower where my mom works and joined the Capital Pacific Bank Christmas party.  All of the other bankers had brought their families and Nemi had a blast with all of the other toddlers.  There were several kids that were within months of her own age.  She took especially quickly to one other little girl Penny.  There was coloring, and lots of food.

Nemi has been saying "Gobble Gobble" and "Tickle Tickle" all week.  She's decided she doesn't like peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches anymore, she opens them up and smears their contents everywhere before feeding them to the dog. 

Nemi has a dolly that she carts around everywhere now and we named her Inga because Nemi's wierd sound for the month has been Ngop or Nga.  We thought Inga would be easy?  I made Inga a dress to match Nemi's hello kitty birthday dress. 

Nemi learned to tell daddy.  "Wake up!"  She also says "Here go" when she hands you something.  She loves climbing on chairs and reaching things on the countertops.  She also crawled into the 2nd shelf of our toy shelf and got stuck inside. There are pictures and I'm uploading video now :P

Today we said farewell to Nemi's Magical Mozart Cube.  It's been her favorite toy since she was able to see the lights dancing on it. She hummed and danced everytime it turned on. Today it fell for the last time and cracked open.  I can't believe I'm so sad to see it go!  I'm sure she'll recieve something equally as fun for christmas. 

Nemi's new word this week is Buckle.  She points to her seatbelt buckle and says Buckle over and over again.  She also says a run together form of here you go when she hands things to you. I wasn't quite sure at first, but I'm pretty sure that's what she's saying, her ee go.

Nemi also got her first dolly this week.  Check for pictures in the December file!  I've already started matching dresses ;)

I was putting Nemi in to her carseat earlier today and she pointed at the seatbelt and said, buckle?  A new word!  She knows what the buckle is! 

With the delays in the house, I have been increasingly unsure of whether I'll put up a tree or decorate at all this year which totally bums me out.  Maybe I just put a wreath over the fireplace.  Nemi has learned a new dance move.  She used to just flail her arms, today she started rotating between flailing her arms and twisting back and forth.  So adorable.  We are having troubles brushing teeth because she insists on stealing the brush!  She also grabs her clothes instantly and tries so hard to put them on herself.  Unfortunately she doesn't understand the pants don't go on her head and you can't put a onesie on through the head hole.  She's becoming so independant already!

Wow, a lot of firsts this week!  I was changing my nieces diaper the other day and Nemi walked over and picked up the rolled up dirty one.  I said to her, can you throw that in the garbage for me?  She walked over and plopped it into the bin!  She did it again this morning for me!  I'm so proud.  She also is very into trying to dress herself.  On Saturday I looked over and she was sitting down putting her shoes on.  She put them on the wrong feet, but she successfully put both shoes on all by herself.  We are having such a wonderful time watching her grow and learn.  I updated her height and weight in the growth chart section if anybody is interested!

I missed it, but apparently Nemi handed something to her Uncle David and she said "Here"  Geri heard it too!  So cute!

 

 

I left a snack out yesterday evening for Nemi with some veggies and cheese and meat.  Dan found broccoli in his shoes this morning.  Guess your never to young to hide your veggies.

I hadn't seen my brother in a while so I invited him to stay with us for the week and we'd all head over to mom's for thanksgiving together.  Nemi also hadn't seen him in  quite a while.  Imagine all of our joy when she immediately ran to his lap and yelled Uncle!  Awww!!!!

Nemi's been learning her anatomy for the past few weeks.  She's really good at it now!  She can point out her eyes, nose, mouth, forehead, tummy, feet, ears!  She still isn't talking much but she's really good at communicating with us and she obviously understands a lot of what we say.  I expect one of these days she'll start talking in paragraphs :)

Nemi got a kazoo in her Jack in the Box kids meal today.  It took both Danny and I several hours but by the end of the night she was tooting along on her kazoo.  She also left a spit trail halfway across the house, but she's still a genius.

Nemi has started this wierd thing where she quickly blows slobber into her hand wipes it sideways then presents it to you!  Where in the world do they get these wierd ideas??? So gross.

Last night I was sitting on the couch with my legs crossed watching Nemi play.  She came up to me with her little pink mary jane shoe and tried to cram it on my foot.  I laughed and told her my foot was much to big.  She looked at the snoozing dog beside me, got a glint in her eye, and ran over to shove it on the dogs outstreched paw.  She then laughed maniacally and clapped her hands.  Gizmo was not amused.  She ran away soon after.  Minus the shoe. :) 

We recently had to put the doorknob covers on the bathroom and laundry room which houses the litter box.  You should hear the swearing that ensues when Danny needs to use the facilities and can't figure out how to use the knobs :P

I got back from painting the new house this evening and Dan told me that Gizmo had wanted attention and started licking him.  Well, Nemi saw this and decided she should be licking daddy too! I made the mistake of putting an open bag of sun chips on the countertop and turning my back.  Dan yelled, too late.  She'd emptied the entire contents onto the floor and was busily smashing them between her toes giggling.  Dan is now vacuuming the chips while yelling because Nemi keeps running in to stomp on the chips and spreading them all over the house!

Ever wonder where all of those mismatched socks end up?  In my house, if something is missing, you check the drawer under the stove.  It's the only place I couldn't put a baby lock.  I keep my cookie sheets in there.  Nemi loves pulling them out and sitting on them.  Guess what I found in there today?  Hangers.  

This little girl is getting into all kinds of trouble.  She learned how to open doorknobs and found the toilet and the litter box!

This week she also discovered she likes laying underneath the coffee table and swinging the baby gate open and shut. 

Nemi is really starting to get into helping dress herself.  She sits on the floor and tries to put her own shoes and socks on.  She's mastered putting her hats on, and she loves helping put her arms in sleeves.

Yesterday as we were renovating and switching off baby duty Nemi got into a little mischief!  We have the living room cordoned off as the safe and clean kids area with tv set and video games for my nephew and tons of toys for the girls.  I ran off to fix a toilet and left the kids with my brother in law.  When I came back he had stepped out to see where people had gone and in the meantime Nemi had crawled into the fireplace and proceeded to eat the ashes.  No harm done to her, but her clothes and white sox are no more.  A few hours later Nemi ran down the hallway and was silent.  I went after her and quickly realized that the bucket Dan had set up to hold up a barrier for the hallway had a big puddle of wet white paint on the lid.  Nemi also had realized this and was busily slapping her hands in it and fingerpainting.  When I obviously panicked and went rushing to her Dan and Matt popped their hands around just in time to see her raising those little paint coated hands to her mouth.  She ended up with a white face, but none actually got in her mouth!

Nemi's been having so much fun exploring the new house and running back and forth down the halls.  She discovered the broom and now drags it around trying to sweep the floor.  Yesterday she crawled into Rachael's swing and had a blast pushing it back and forth all by herself. 

We got some great demo done and bought some beautiful appliances.  I've started a blog just for the house.  http://ourbrickranch.blogspot.com/

We recieved the keys to our new home Friday afternoon!  Friday the entire close family gathered and had pizza on our new floor :)

Saturday morning demo started!  I will load pictures of progress soon.  We completely cleared all the appliances and cabinets in the kitchen.  We still need to scrape off the old linoleum and remove the wierd soffets.  Lennart and I also removed all of the old tile in the main bathroom and Landon removed the old sinks and toilet.  We also had our contractor come out Saturday morning and we ordered all of our new windows and doors!  he also said he'd refinish the wood floors for us.  Mom and I went shopping and bought lots and lots of tools, painting supplies, and food for everybody! 

We are soooo tired. But ecstatic!!!

I just added 8 new videos in the October folder and 2 new videos from today in the November folder.  Enjoy!

Tonight Nemi found Mommys shoes and scuffled all around the house for hours wearing them :)  Yes there are pictures.  I just finished uploading them and her in her ballerina outfit helping daddy carve his pumpkins.

This week Nemi learned how to twirl around in circles, and make fishy faces!

Today we spent a wonderful day with Danny's family.  They were celebrating, Danny, Uncle Garrett, and Grandma Kitty's birthdays!  Dan's cousins Luke and his wife Lisa, and Trisha and her son Cole were there also, as well as Dan's brother and his girlfriend and their kids, and of course Papa Roy.  We had some great food, and Luke and Lisa took some great photos that I just finished loading into the picture section, do check them out please.  Nemi was passed around to everybody at one point in the evening and ended up missing a nap, making her not so pleasing to be around :)  I have the teeth marks to prove it.  Ahhhh to be home, she is snugly tucked in her bed.  Such a sweet day.

The inspection went fairly well, just a bunch of small stuff that we were going to replace anyway, and the moisture barrier under the house which Dan can do.  The only largeish thing that came up is that the lot is flat so water is running under the house, so we have to put a french drain in which will be a slightly big project.  Other than that, no pests, no dryrot!  I can't believe this house is in such good condition!  YAY!  I'll add a house file in the pictures tab!

Just got the news, our offer was accepted and WE GOT THE HOUSE!!!!

Now we just have lots of paperwork and inspections to do. The inspection is Saturday morning!!! Then we are going to replace all the windows, redo the kitchen and one bathroom, and refinish the hardwood floors before we move in.  We are hoping to be in by Christmas!!!!

My mom's wedding photos all finally came in so if anybody wants to see, head over to their website and take a look, i'm in the process of loading them now!

http://lennartandgwendolyn.shutterfly.com/

Nemi learned to take the outlet protectors out today and tried relentlessly to stick her finger in the socket. I spent the entire day trying to distract her to no avail.  Now I have to find a better solution.

Today we spent the day at Seaside, OR on the beach.  Nemi absolutely loved it!  She rolled and rolled in the sand and dug and ate a little and just had a blast!  We went to the aquarium and she thought the seals looked cool and chuckled, then one barked at her and splashed her and she was terrified and screamed then just sobbed.  So we left :)  We had lots of fun with Papa Roy, Aunt Geri and Uncle Matt.  Robert was crazy and waded into the ocean and about froze himself to death  and little Rachael just gazed at everything.  On the way home we stopped and had a chat with Grandma Kitty.  Now we're all exhausted and sandy and ready for bed!

We went to the farmer's market today and Nemi and I shared a giant corndog and kettle corn.  I had to refill her snack cup 3 times she loved the popcorn sooo much!  Now she's all sugared up.  Tomorrow we're going to the beach with Papa Roy and Uncle Matt, Aunt Geri, and cousins Robert and Rachael!

Dan calls it her sit n spin.  She started it yesterday.   Nemi sits on the floor with her legs extended, then uses her feet on the hardwood floor to sping herself in circles while still sitting!  She's absolutely hilarious.  Sorry I didn't have the camera on hand to catch it this time!

4 new videos added!  2 of them are of the process of transporting the giant pumpkin.  Sorry, there may be a bad word or two... bad daddy.

It's my favorite season.  The air has turned crisp and the leaves are changing.  We went to the pumpkin patch today and bought an immense pumpkin.  Big enough to fit a couple of kids inside.  Video and pics to come later.  It took Dan and Matt both to haul it from our SUV to the stair rail, roll it down the railing, run for an office chair, then roll it to the door on the chair!  Yes, I video taped the process!  This will be the last year Nemi can fit into a pumpkin, sigh.  But it's sooo cute!

We also took time to pick fresh Dahlias while we were there, buy some fresh produce, check out the farm animals, and eat fresh corn on the cob.

Nemi loved the goats and chickens, but the cow put it's head up and stuck it's tongue out at Nemi and she screamed in terror.

We found a beautiful house that needs some updating.  We are making an offer tonight or tomorrow.  The realtor said we should know within 3-4 days if it's ours!

Here's a link to the house's listing

 

 

http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/3211-Ne-62Nd-Ave_Vancouver_WA_98661_1113072510?mp=1

Last night I was standing in the kitchen and my baby girl walked up to me and held both of her hands in the air and said mama mama.  It melted my heart.  She's never held her arms up before to be picked up :)

I was chopping onions this afternoon and I must have dropped one because a few seconds later I saw Nemi stuff a piece in her mouth then give me the worst face I've ever seen.  She then stuck both hands in her mouth in an effort to shovel out the offending piece and presented it to me with a sour face.

We have one eye tooth below the surface!

It's my favorite time of year.  I can't believe fall is already here.  We have been looking at houses all week.  We found one we really love, but it's in the process of foreclosure and my realtor says there's always a 50% chance that the current owners will be able to bring their mortgage current and save the house.  So no idea if we'll be able to get it.  Sometimes shortsales take months to close.  So we are keeping our eye on it and moving on.  We've found 2 other houses that I'm absolutely in love with, but that need an immense ammount of work, one had a saggy ceiling over the kitchen, that also was the floor of the master bedroom.  The other one had a multitude of problems and just wasn't liveable until a lot of work was done, but it was a gorgeous old farmhouse.  I'm sure just around the corner we'll find the perfect home!

Nemi's 4th molar split the gums today!  She has 12 teeth now!

Nemi spends most of her day either looking into a big mirror we put down low, dancing, blowing kisses and being cute, or reading books!  I started bringing a few board books out to the play area and she just goes nuts, she loves turning the pages and looking at the pictures for hours, then she'll bring them to me to read. I'm so excited she already loves reading so much!

Stuck my finger in Nemi's mouth and found the tips of 3 molars just cut through today!  She has a total of 11 teeth now!  Isn't it silly how excited we get to count teeth?

Nemi was done eating so I took her tray off then put her down and she wandered off.  I came back in the room to catch her climbing the highchair!  She can step up on the footrest now and pull herself all the way into the seat!  I thought she was going to fall and split her head open!

What seems ironic to some, but typical to me.  Both of our cars went kaput in the same day!  Both of our new cars!  I tried to help a neighbor jump her car, then mine started billowing smoke and sparks started shooting out.  Then Dan got home minus the Volvo, said he got to work but coudn't get back.  Of course when he tried to start the Ford and see what went wrong, nothing went wrong.  So I'm too scared to drive it alone with the baby for fear I'll get stranded somwhere with a baby along, but it does run.  So maybe Dan at least can get to work in it.

Nemi is pushing a molar and has been having an extremely rough time this week.  She only wants to be held.  She cries if you aren't touching her all the time.  She's hardly eating because it hurts to chew.  My poor baby.  I hope it pops through soon!  We are off to the zoo with Grandpa Landon today!  Man I love this zoo membership, thanks Nana and Lennart!

Yesterday we spent the whole afternoon and evening with Matt, Geri, Robert and Rachael.  We all just hung out and talked and had fun.  Then later Papa Roy came over and we all had pizza. We had such a good time spending time with everybody and getting to know each other better.  Nemi is intrigued by the baby.  She kept trying to feed her cheerios! 

Today I watched Robert and Rachael while their parents ran some errands.  Robert mostly played the Wii as boys do.  Nemi was intrigued with Rachael and kept trying to crawl in my lap with her or bring her toys when she was trying to sleep.  It was very adorable, but I think Nemi started getting a little jealous when I was feeding Rachael.  She realized all of her snuggles were being diverted to another baby!  I can't imagine how mom's for centuries have been able to raise babies and toddlers and deal with it.  Trying to keep Nemi from crawling on top of the baby eating in my arms was almost impossible!

Today Nemi met her Uncle Matt for the first time.  She also met her two cousins Robert and tiny Rachael.  Robert and Nemi spent the day together with Grandma Kitty.

Nemi points to her ear now when you ask where it is.  She also knows where her tongue is and sticks it out at you.  I've been working on nose, but she just keeps pointing to my ear when I ask where her nose is.

Today we spent the day with Grandma Kitty.  Nemi was super good and played well for her while I did a little housework.  When we got home and of course after Daddy left for work I looked over at Nemi and she had her hands and feet on the floor when her legs spread and her butt up in the air and was looking at me upside down through her legs!  I got a ton of pics!!!  She kept cracking up, standing up, then bending over and sticking her head in between her legs again!

Nemi's really getting a personality.  She throws insane temper tantrums when you tell her no.  She also dances everytime she hears music, she throws her hands in the air and just starts flailing and bouncing up and down.  When she's done eating she says Daddy Down, and daddy takes her out of her highchair in the evenings.  In the bathtub she gets washed, then plays for a few minutes, then throws all her toys out of the tub one by one. When I try to pull her out she squeals and tries to run away from me before I can get her out.  She loves the tub!  She's always sticking her tongue out now.  Today I said where's your ear and she pointed to it!  She learned the word duck and goes around saying qack qack duck.  She's a total daredevil, always scaling the sofas and standing on her precariously perched toys to reach things she's not supposed to.  And she absolutely loves terrorizing the poor dog and crawling all over her.  The dog just lays there and grunts :)

Nemi recieved her 2nd set of vaccination redo's today.  She did very well, only cried for about 30 seconds then ran around the office with her new teddy bear for about 15 minutes.  After she got home she was an incredible grump for most of the evening, but I still think she did very well. 

When she is told no or to stay off the furniture she now tries to bite you.  Parenting is so inventive!  Any ideas???

Nemi got a new tooth!  She finally cut her fourth bottom tooth, so she now is nice and even.  Four on top, our on bottom!  She's working on a couple of molars at the moment.  It's been so much fun to live with her recently ;) Nemi realized she can run last night and she took off!  Now I'm going to spend a lot of time chasing her!

I added 7 new videos in the August folder.

Sad news, Dan redid our computer and copied over all of my videos and pictures, but somehow missed from May 2009 -July 2009.  The videos are still on this website and youtube, but I have lost my copies forever.

Check out Nana Gwen and Lennart's new site!

http://lennartandgwendolyn.shutterfly.com/

Nemi is all of the sudden getting very bright.  She can stack all of her stacking cups in order, put all her rings on the post in order, she's extremely excited by her duplo lego's and started building this week.  She also has stolen a purse of mine and carts it around her neck, then puts her stacking rings on her arms and wears them like bracelets and puts my shoes on her feet and tries to walk in them.  I've never worn bracelet's so i'm not sure how she learned that one, but she's all girlie girl and loves accesorizing!

Dan's boss called this morning and asked him to start work today!  YAY! 

 

Nemi's been climbing.  She climbs nonstop.  If you take one eye off of her she's over the back of the couch and standing on the window ledge precariously perched.  I can't do anything now.  I can't use the bathroom, or prepare food without her being on the top of the back of the couch or in the window!

Dan's boss called this morning and says he has a couple weeks of work!!!  So he starts back on the 16th.  Thanks for everybody's prayers!

Mom and Lennart both emailed from Helsinki.  Here's what they said.

 

we'll be here in Helsinki until Monday, when we take the overnight boat/floating hotel to Stockholm. We still have only a vague idea of what we'll be doing there, but I'm sure we'll figure out some fun stuff while we're there.

We are having a great time. Wed we walked and walked and walked!!! The architecture here is wonderful. So much detail. In Helsinki, no building is allowed to be more than six stories high, so all of them are six stories high. Lennart calls them Legos. All blocks. We got to see the oldest stone building in Helsinki which was done in the mid 1700s. Older than the US.

We have gone to some wonderful restaurants. Went to one that was based on the old finnish logging camps. Real basic food, but yummy! I had reindeer steak and elk sausage skewers. So good!

Thursday we took a tour bus around for 1 ½ hours. Saw a real neat church that is carved out of the stone. Got pictures and a brochure. Went shopping down at the harbor. Tent town like Saturday market and Farmers market all rolled into one. Very cool. Got something for you and David. Have no clue what to get Danny and Landon. Maybe something in Stockholm.

Last night went to the opera. Had dinner at Lennart's mom's first. Great food. Lennart got a veal recipe from her that I can't wait to try. The opera was wonderful. Wish you could have been there. Funny! Mozart had a real sense of humor. Every one in "love" with everyone else. Everyone playing tricks on everyone else. The music wasn't bad either.

Today we are off to the country to visit Lennart's cousin Veronica. We are going by train so will get to see some of the country side.

Gotta run,

Hugs,
Mom

Just got an email from Nana, Here's what she said about Finland!

 

First impressions:  Pink Granite!  As we were coming from
the airport I noticed that the hills that were cut away for
the road were made mostly of pink granite.  When we got to
the hotel, the sidewalks are made of pink granite
cobblestones.  Pink granite is ground up and put in the
asphalt for the roads.  We pay a fortune for pink granite

and here they line the streets with it!'

 Helsinki is built on hills like Portland but a lot of
 things are just older.  It is a very neat city with parks
 and little plazas here and there and lots of nooks and
 crannies to go exploring.  

 I'm going to go do laundry by hand now.  They don't
 have a washer and dryer we can use, and having their laundry
 service do it is ridiculously expensive.  A pair of socks
 costs 4€ (over $8) to wash.  Fortunately they have a
 laundry line in the bath tub area, so I can at least get our
 underware clean. 

 

 

She also said she's having difficulty with an old keyboard that the space bar doesn't hardly work on, and has all kinds of extra characters getting in her way! 
 
 

We are home at last.  Nemi screamed at the top of her lungs and wailed for most of our 3 1/2 hour flight.  We finally settled her and she slept for the last hour.  We are all exhausted and happy to be in our own home.  Nemi saw her toys and ran to them and squealed.  Then she saw the cat and squealed, then the dog and squealed.  She's now chasing them both around the living room. 

Day 10

Woke up at a reasonable time and joined the whole family for brunch at 11am at Tippecanoes Restaurant in South Bend Indiana.  We then had a tour of the building and took family photos on the grand staircase and outside on the front entrance which was all stonework and had huge arches that all the kids could climb into.  They even made me climb up it for the photos since I was a grandkid.... I am not so fit anymore.

After everybody went back to the Grands, Dan and I took Nemi back to Oma and Opa's for a goodbye evening.  Dan helped Opa a little with his computer which did not end up very fruitful.  But we had a nice visit and left fairly early to start packing.  On the way back we stopped at my cousin Christine's house and she wasn't there so we jotted around the corner to her dad's house and found Christine, her sister Lori, and their brother Harold all mowing their dad's lawn.  So we got a good farewell and were glad we decided to stop.

We then came back to the Furst home and I did all of our laundry and packed all up.  Am exhausted and have to get up at 5am to be on a plane by 9am. 

Tomorrow.... HOME!

Day 9

We went to the All Nations Seventh Day Adventist Church with Grandma and Grandpa Furst.  I had to sit in the mommy's room with a very squirmy Nemi.  The church members called them up and honored them for their 50th Anniversary. Afterward we all came back to the Grands and were also joined by Great Uncle Joe and his wife Karen, Great Aunt Ruby, My mom's cousin Barb and her husband, and of course all of my aunts and uncle and all the cousins.  We had a huge meal and had lots of fun watching the kids run around and be silly and get reaquainted with everybody else.  Everybody stayed most of the evening to have leftovers and all headed home or to their respective hotels.

 

Tomorrow.... Brunch at Tippecanoes!

Day 8

We had a lazy start to the morning and were just moping about the house.  My cousin Indy had spent the night and her and David had stayed up all night chattering.  Then my Aunt Janelle surprised us with a visit and she and I caught up for a few hours.  We then packed up the car and my Uncle Russell and his wife Julie and one of their sons Trevor, Aunt Janelle and her two daughters Chloe and Indy, Grandma Grandpa David Nemi and I, and headed out to lunch.  When we got back everybody else headed over to Russell's house while The Grands David Chloe Nemi and I waited for my mom, Lennart and Dan to arrive.  They finally did and we also headed over to Russell's for a great bbq out in the driveway.  We also spent some time ogling his marine tank and oohing over his gorgeous coral while the kids all massed around the goldfish pond outside and caught frogs.  We've seen a ton of different varieties of frogs here as it's been raining most nights.  Finally we all said goodbye and headed back to the Grands house for some cleaning up and getting ready for tomorrow.

Tomorrow.... Church then a big dinner and Grandma and Grandpa's!

Day 7

Nemi and I got up early... at her request. ;)  We had some breakfast then headed over to pick Oma Lynn up and all headed out to Apple Valley Market to see how much it had changed.  It looked very much the same as we remembered.  We then made our way to the Christian Book store which had changed and expanded and was quite impressive.  Then we headed back to Oma and Opa's where we hung out all day smelling the aroma's from Oma's kitchen.  She told us we couldn't touch or taste for another 4 hours and as our tummy's grumbled and we salivated over all of the sights sounds and smells.  The hour finally came and all of the Riess' started showing up.  First were Uncle Philip and Aunt Nancy.  Then Lori and Christine and Jeff and Michael and one of their friends showed up.  Last Harold and Tammy.  Everybody had a great time, ate way too much and told me repeatedly how nice Nemi was and how much like me she was.  They especially made sure to tell me that she was such a quiet and sweet baby just like I had been.  She was such a good girl and allowed everybody to pick her up and pass her around and play with her.  Nancy brought her the softest stuffed leopard and Nemi absolutely adored it and kept hugging it and carting it around all night.  She also gave Nemi two new outfits that are so cute!  We had a great time and stayed way to late.  I'm off to bed.

Tomorrow.... My husband will finally be here!!!  In the evening, off to Uncle Russell's for some fun with the Furst clan.

Day 6

 

Today Nemi and I woke up and headed over to Oma and Opa's to meet Oma Lynn!  Nemi had such a great time getting to know her.  They played for quite a long time together, had lunch, thhen we headed out to go see Margie, a good friend of my father's and Lynn's.  We had a great visit and when we were through we went to the fair to find a cinnamon roll vendor we used to visit every year together when I was a kid.  Well, we found that the old vendor had long stopped baking and there was a new guy there instead.   The cinnamon rolls were not as good, but the nostalgia was still there.  After all of this we headed out to the cemetary to visit my dad and my great grandparents.  They were still in the same place and seemed to be well tended.  Finally we made our way back to Oma and Opa's for a quick dinner of leftover goulash and creamed spinach with rice.  Nemi was having a teething breakdown so I was just getting ready to head out when Oma got a call from my Opa's sister.  She said her and her husband were on their way to visit.  Nemi and I decided to stay for a little bit longer.  They showed up with their tiny toy poodle who terrified Nemi until I got on the floor and petted him for a long time.  We had a fun visit and My great Aunt left a gift for Nemi.  Now we are back at Grandma and Grandpa Furst's and Nemi is bathed and in bed.

 

Tomorrow...  Apple Valley Market, then plum dumplings and meeting all the Wutzke's and Riess' together!

Day 5

Today was gorgeous so we decided to do the fair intead of the beach.  Grandma and I took Nemi and David out and walked all over the fairgrounds checking out all the booths and animals.  We met up with my Aunt Julie and she showed us all of the items her 2 sons had entered into the fair.  One of her sons took first and second place for the photography section.  We had a great time.  When we went to see the livestock I pushed Nemi's stroller close to a goat pen and the goat leaned over to sniff her and she screamed, terrified and tried to jump away and started crying so hard.  I couldn't help it, i cracked up laughing while trying to console her but it was just hilarious!  we got some food at the fair and continued walking and I met some folks I remember from when i was a kid, I just can't remember why I know them!  But they remembered me and my Dad so i talked and gave hugs and then left.  I have no idea who they are still but that's okay!  I'm sure it won't be the last time this trip!

Day 4

Woke up this morning and it was pouring down the biggest raindrops I'd ever seen.  So... we didn't go to the fair.  Instead I called up Oma and Opa and Nemi and I spent the day with them.  Oma made us some yummy dumplings and beef and played with Nemi for a long time.  Nemi was resisting any ideas of a nap so we strapped her in her stroller and went to walk her around the property.  She conked right out.  Opa then took me around the grounds and showed me how he'd set up a walking course for himself with stakes in the ground at certain intervals.  it weaves all through the trees he's planted and makes up a 1/3 of a mile.  So if he walks it 3 times he's done a mile!  Then he showed me where he sorts and packages all of his donations for his non-profit.  I was so impressed to see how much his organization has grown!  Nemi has had so much fun getting to know her Oma and Opa.  We can't wait to meet Oma Lynn in 2 days!!!!

Tomorrow.... if it's not raining, Silver Beach and the lighthouse!!!!!!

Day 3

We woke up at 8am had breakfast and hit the road for Lansing Mi.  We got to the zoo about an hour ahead of time and got to meet Jenn and her son Caden in the parking lot.  A little later on Michelle and Derrik met us with their son Drayven.  The kids had a lot of fun looking at all of the animals and I had such a great time getting to know the other parents.  I can't believe I got to meet 4 momma's and 1 daddy all in one weekend!  I've been waiting for this for almost 2 years and it was so worth it!

We got back to the Furst's home around 6pm and had dinner and let Nemi get some wiggles out before tubby time and then off to bed!

 

Tomorrow..... The Youth Fair!!!

We flew in around 4:45 pm last night to South Bend Indiana.  Nemi handled the flights like a champ.  She slept most of the time, but did have a little sicky accident at the Chicago airport... well 3 times she got sick.  Then she was alright and slept on the next flight.

When we arrived Grandpa Furst suprised us at the airport and it's a good thing because he was able to help me straighten out issues with my car rental and help carry some baggage!  We went back to the Furst's house and had some dinner, then rushed to Oma and Opa's for a quick visit.  Oma brought out lots of toys and Opa played his accordian and sang lots of songs to Nemi.  We had a great time!

 

Day 2

Woke up 7am.  Left around 10am to go to fellow July08 Momma Crystal's wedding!  Got lost and wandered for about an hour. Finally made it there and met two amazing women that I've had the blessing to get to know for the last 21 months.  They were everything I hoped for and more and their two little boys were so much fun to meet.  Drove another 3 1/2 hours back to the grands, arrived around 10:30pm just in time for Nemi to get some wiggles out and go to bed! 

 

Tomorrow... off to the Lansing Zoo to meet 2 more mommies, Jenn and Michelle and their sons Caden and Drayven!

A couple of weeks ago we got a letter from our pediatrician stating that their refrigerated vaccine storage system was found to be inadequate making all vaccines possibly bad from that unit and that all of Nemi's 3 rounds of vaccines were in the affected category. 

So today we started her vaccine schedule all over.  She took the 5 vaccines like a trooper and only cried for a couple of minutes.  The nurse gave her a pink bunny beanie baby and she was happy again.  We weighed her at 19lbs and 3 ozs.

We are getting ready for our Michigan trip!  Nemi and I are very excited to be meeting everybody.  We have a very full schedule that includes a lot of friends new and old and tons of family members.  I just hope I don't forget something!

We officially have a toddler!  She's very timid about it still but she's walking!  She stands up all the time in the middle of the floor not holding onto anything.  Sometimes she'll pick up a toy and walk 5 or so steps before she falls over.  She loves walking to mommy or daddy and throwing her arms around our legs and giving us hugs.  And she's so incredibly proud of herself when she gets to her destination she just beams up at us.  I'm so excited to be going home to visit and have everybody see her walk!

Today Poppa Roy, Daddy, Mommy, and Nemi drove up to Great Grandma Kitty's and were able to also visit with Cousin Tricia, her son Cole, and her father Great Uncle Garrett.  They also brought some neat gifts for Nemi including the coolest inflatable penguin that has balls in it and makes noises and music when you bob it back and forth.  There was also a really neat winnie the pooh rattle and another contraption that had a ton of little activities on it.  I don't really know what to call it.  But we want to say thank you so very much to all of you and we really appreciated getting to visit with you!  Nemi had so much fun trying to crawl all over Cole and play with him.  She even decided at one point that she just wanted to lay on his chest and snuggle.  It was sooo cute!

Today Nemi was busy trying to snatch the cats tail when he decided he'd had enough and jumped off of the desk to hide somewhere else.  Nemi got this wide eyed look and announced.  Cat Down? 

Nemi has her friend Kaleah over to play today and they are having a blast.  Today Nemi is trying more and more to walk.  She will now stand up holding a toy all over the house and try to take a step and topple over.  I think she'll be toddling by the end of the week!

Today Nemi walked several steps back and forth between Dan and I.  She's getting a little braver but doesn't show any want to walk on her own.  She is lightning fast crawling, I don't blame her!

Today we spent the day at Great Grandma Kitty's house.  Nemi spent a lot of time pushing a  chair around the carport and got very muddy crawling through the grass and across the sidewalk.  She had a blast visiting.  While we were there some good family friends came with their granddaughter and great grandson who had some fun playing with Nemi.  We ate pizza and had an all around good time.

We took Nemi's 1 year photos today.  So in about 2 weeks be expecting something in the mail all you grandparents and aunts and uncles! 

 

Nemi is talking up a storm now, she babbles nonstop.  She loves climbing anything, and especially likes taking out all of the baking sheets from the drawer under the oven and sitting either in the drawer or on the cookie sheets.

Today was Nemi's Birthday party. We had a lot of fun finger foods and a beautiful white cake with whipped cream frosting and fresh strawberries put in the layers.  It was so yummy!

 

Nana and Lennart gave Nemi some cute new clothes, a xylophone to play with at their house, and a membership to the zoo!  Thank you Nana and Lennart!

Grandpa Landon got Nemi a huge bag of girly colored Mega Blox that Nemi instantly went crazy for.  Thank you Grandpa Landon!

Mommy and Daddy got Nemi a new outfit.

Tante Estie and Uncle Bob, Nathan and Hunter sent a great box full of goodies, including some new clothes, and some great stacking cups that Nemi carries around everywhere.  Thank you Penn family! 

Pop Roy gave Nemi an adorable Hello Kitty doll.

 

Thank you to everybody who sent the nice cards and gifts in the mail!!!  All cash gifts were put into Nemi's education fund.  The gift of an education is one we find the most important of all so we thank everybody so much for contributing!  The Beals family were a huge contributor this year, as well as the Fursts, Wutzke's and Oma Wutzke.

Today was Nemi's 1st birthday.  We spent the whole day with her having fun.  I also made a birthday banner for her to use every year.  Her birthday party will be at Nana and Lennart's house on Saturday.  Dan has been refinishing an antique rocking horse for her.  I can't wait to paint it!

Nemi learned tonight to climb the couch.  She can now climb all the way over the sofa and try to fling herself over the back, which means all of my babyproofing is now null and void...  I can't leave her for 2 seconds before she starts climbing up the couch!  I have to re babyproof my entire house!  She can't even walk yet!

Nemi's 7th tooth just made it's appearance.  Now she has 4 on the bottom and 3 on top!  She also learned this week how to put the shapes in their color coated wholes on her new toy.  I think she's a genius!

Nemi's started saying no... which is not as cute as it sounds!  She also is starting to sign more when she wants more food.  And she's started saying down or done when she wants down from her highchair.  I'm not sure if it's supposed to be down or done.. it could be either! :P

Nemi took her first 3 steps last night between Dan and I!  We bribed her with the wii remote and she walked for it!  Then fell over :P

David picked up Nemi about 5 minutes ago and she smiled and yelled Uncle!  He's so happy, he's been working on that word for months!  Yay!  And then she started clapping!!!  I've been trying to get her to do that for months too and yesterday she was playing with her new friend Olina and I guess she taught her how to clap!

Up above I've changed the photos to the day she was born, 1 month old, 6 months old, and 11 months old.  I can't believe it's almost been a year!

I keep getting asked what we need for Nemi's birthday.  We don't need anything, but would appreciate everything :)

If you buy clothes please buy 18 months and up.  Size 3 or bigger shoe.

Any cash gifts will go straight into her school fund which is rapidly growing!  We already have her first year of grade school tuition! 

What we would really love is a membership to the zoo or OMSI or the childrens museum.  Since Dan isn't working at the moment we have all this time to actually use the membership and it'd be the perfect time for it.  Nemi loves animals!

 

Oh, Nemi learned the word Ball yesterday and has been calling everything ball now.

I'm starting to get questions as to which books Nemi has.... she has tons!!! So here are pictures of how many books she has to prove I'm not going crazy when I say I had to buy a new bookshelf to fit them all on!

Nemi learned to climb stairs this weekend!  Dan turned around and up she started going so he stood behind her and she climbed all the way up Nana's two flights of stairs and into the office to come see me, she did it 5 more times the next day!  Boy did she sleep well last night.

We have a 1st birthday quickly approaching!  I'll post a list of her needs/wants and sizes very soon.

Alrighty, I'm in the process of uploading some new videos.  Actually some of them are from last month.  Then I dropped the camera.... well Dan got it to work ... some of the time.  So I took a video today entitled wave.  And I'm going to post it, but apologize because it's obvious the camera is now toast and you can hardly make out the video.  So, no more video until I can get a new camera, sorry!

2 days until the grands, 4 days until the wedding!

Nemi's figured out how to push the wipee box button and pull all the wipes out!  It's her favorite new way to make her mother go nuts! 

3 days until the Furst grands get here!  5 days until Nana Gwen's wedding!  Everything is set, I finished Nemi's dress, and I've been busy all week talking with caterers, bakers, florists, and relatives.  We're getting so excited!

Well, it's been a busy week helping plan Nana's upcoming wedding. Nemi still has no urge to walk, she wants to be standing at all times, but crawls quickly everywhere.  You try to walk her with your fingers and she just dangles and bounces from your fingers!  She'll get it eventually.  Her favorite toys are ones that make noise, or the cloth diaper bin by the couch.  As soon as I pick them all out, she's over there pulling all the diapers off the shelves!  Nemi and I are getting very excited to see Great Grandma and Grandpa next week, then off to Michigan to visit again in August!  Daddy is working out of town near Astoria this week.  It's a week long job that will help us out a little, but no news of any work after this one.  So Nemi and I are a little lonely but getting lots of mommy and baby time in.

Nemi learned how to slurp with a straw this weekend.  We thought it was great... until Dan went to grab something and came back and Nemi was slurping my coffee through the straws!  Now our baby is wired!

We went to the farmer's market yesterday and had a lot of fun looking at all the booths.  We bought some fresh honey, then some kettle corn and corndogs and lemonade and sat in the shade at the park listening to live music and letting Nemi explore.  She hates the grass touching her skin. She's so funny she won't crawl in it!

We bought Nemi her first pool today!  She had so much fun splashing and giggling until she was chattering and her lips were turning blue! 

I forgot to say, last night when we were at the park, Nemi was standing up holding onto me.  Then she just let go and was standing all by herself for several seconds!  She did it a few times over the course of the evening.  yay!  Her first time standing alone!

It's been a while since I updated, Sorry!  Nemi's decided she's a big girl now and doesn't want to eat that sloppy baby food anymore.  So I've had to bite my tongue and get over the fact that she'll make a mess.  I let her start feeding herself.  The dog thinks it's wonderful because she sits directly under the highchair and gets to clean up the flung food.  Nemi loves pancakes and eggs for breakfast.  She had peaches this morning too!  We tried Spagetti, and then had to give a bath to her, the highchair, and mop the floor!  We got her a new toy that's on legs so she has to stand to play with it.  It also has wheels and she walks it around the room.  She's getting so close to walking!

This week Nemi learned the V sound and she's been va vvva va va all over the house :)   She also has learned how to stand up behind her little car Tante Estie gave us and she'll push it a few steps and actually walk a few steps before she falls over!  The new glasses have been interesting.  For the most part she leaves them alone, then she gets bored and pulls them down into her mouth, they already have teeth marks all around the edges.  But she seems to see much better now and she immediately grabbed my hair and cracked up laughing and running her fingers through all the ends.  I think she could finally see individual hairs, it was really neat.

Nemi got her first glasses today and they look ridiculous.  Pictures!

Nemi had her 2nd haircut today.  It was hanging in her eyes so it had to go.  chop chop... I'm loading pictures now!

New videos!

Nemi's new word is DOG. She says dog everytime she sees the dog or the cat.

She learned how to wave this week, but almost always does it when somebody isn't looking and when you try to get her to do it she just grins at you :)  But she's on her way!  She wants to be standing at  all times.  If you walk away from her she's crawling so fast now she's instantly on your heels!

Nemi saw her Opthamologist today.  He said she definately has a lazy eye on her right side.  He recommended glasses and then a checkup in 3 months, if it hasn't corrected by then we'll do an eye patch for a while.  He also said she's definately farsighted so she'll probably need to always wear glasses.  Then we found out our coverage didn't cover the eye doctor.  So that's fun news and a new bill to look forward to!  I have NO idea how i'm going to keep glasses on an infant!  Especially one who detests anything on her face or head.  She screams if I just try to wipe the food off her mouth!

We had Sorme for dinner and it was great!  I had to call Oma half way through cooking for help but it turned out great!  My Spaetzle was great tasting, however it kinda all clumped together so it was more like dumplings than noodles.  But nobody complained.  That's the good part about having a family that's never had it before :P  They have no idea you've messed it up! 

Today is beautiful and we snapped some new photos outside with Nemi, check them out!

We tried Rewlesupp today and it turned out so yummy!  Nemi thought so too, she kept bouncing up and down until I'd give her another bite.  I think I over fried the dumplings though because the supp was rather thin, but yummy!  It's been so beautiful outside the last few days we've been taking Nemi to the park every day and sticking her in the swing.  Yesterday I took her to her Uncles and put her bouncy seat on the patio and she played there in the shade while I dug up his garden.  I planted a blueberry bush.  We also have Rosemary, Dill, Parsley, Basil, Cucumbers, Tomatoes, Cantelope, Eggplant, and lots of flower seeds to start!  Oh and strawberries already growing.

Nemi loves Palatschinken!  Tante Estie sent us a family recipe book that she and Uncle David put together with beautiful family photos.  I've started trying some of the recipes.  The goulash turned out pretty wierd, i was able to save it so we could eat it, but it definately didn't taste like goulash!  We went to the zoo this week and I of course forgot the camera.  I do have some new videos and photos I'm uploading now of her swinging at the park and her visit last night with Papa Roy. 

Nemi had her checkup this morning.  The Dr. is very happy with her progress.  She's lost some weight but the Dr said that's fine as she's very active and she's really eating very well.  She's still in the normal range.  She's pretty tall at 27.5 inches.  Pretty much on track with her genetics!  We have been keeping close attention to her eyes which seem to be getting more crossed, the Dr decided we need to see an opthamologist to see what's going on.  Other than that she's the healthiest baby ever!

We moved Uncle David into his first apartment today.  As we speak he's setting up his kitchen, unpacking his boxes, and moving into a whole new chapter of his life.  It's kind of surreal.  I changed his diapers!  And now he lives next door to me!  :)  I'm so happy to see him out on his own, even if it's super close to me so he's not completely on his own.

Today we bought a couple of baby learning DVD's.  We watched the first words one. It has really simplistic animation and a soothing female voice narates. Nemi was paying very close attention.  The lady said Cup. This is my first cup.  This is my favorite cup.  I said something to Dan then jumped as Nemi said CUP!  very clearly CUP!  Of course she won't do it again!  My baby is a genius!!! LOL

Nemi cut her third tooth!  Her top front right tooth!  I really hope that means all the screming this week is over!!!!!

We bought 2 new cars today.  An 89 Volvo 740 Wagon in dark blue, and a 95 Ford Explorer SUV in white.  Yay!  Cars that run!  Now we just have to dump our old two at the auction and we're set!

Our poor little old kitty Sorcha left us today.  Her kidneys just couldn't hold out.  We at least were able to comfort her in her last few months.  The vet told us at her last checkup what signs to look for.  At that point she wasn't showing any.  This last week she declined rapidly and this morning we had to put her to sleep.  She was a wonderful kitty who hunted runaway socks out of the laundry and loved chasing the rings around the milk lid all over the house.  She was so gentle and soft.  We will miss her so very much.

Nemi's put herself to sleep now for 4 days!  I put her in her crib fully awake with her dolly and she talks away for half an hour or so, then she conks out :)  I'm so proud!  Except at night, she still screams nonstop whether your holding her or walking or rocking, she does not want to go to bed!

 

A while back we were visiting a friend with keyboard and Nemi had a great time pounding on it.  So I looked forever and finally found the cutest tiny keyboard.  She LOVES it!  Pictures!

OMG so Dan was an angel and went out and brought me back a reeces cup mocha mmmm, then I'm playing on the floor with Nemi and stupid me I put my mocha on the floor by the couch, I get up to grab some new batteries for her toy, when I come back she's playing in a 16 oz puddle of mocha on the floor splashing around and sucking it off her fingers... wow I'm intellegent.. LOL then she starts screaming cuz she wants to crawl to me but the floor is all slippery... so she got another bath! LOL and now I have to mop ugh.

Dan's friend Fasty brought his daughter Molly over for a playdate tonight!  Nemi and Molly had a ton of fun!

Nemi pulled herself up on her bouncy seat today and started creeping around the edge of it!  I'm so scared at how close to walking she is!!!  She's just about to get into everything!!!  We bought a new lightweight stroller today that we all love and are donating the old one and her matching old carseat to our neighbors who just had their fifth baby.  They have been so amazing to us and given us so many hand me down clothes and nice cloth diapers from their last baby that we were so happy to be able to help them out in some way!  I added 3 new videos today of Nemi crawling!

Well Nemi is pulling up all over the house.  She quickly realized that while she is standing in her playpen she can reach things out of the pen!  I keep forgetting to pull the pen into the middle of the room, and I'll come back  from switching the laundry and she'll have opened all the drawers on my little desk!!!

 

Dan shaved his beard off yesterday.  Nemi FLIPPE OUT!  She screamed nonstop every time he tried to touch her. It took about an hour to calm her down and for her to realize it was still daddy!

Well my hair finally got too long, and I donated it all to locks of love!  I cut off 11 inches. So hopefully some little girl out there will get a gorgeous new wig.  I hope she's happy with it!  I'm glad Nemi doesn't get to hang from it anymore!

Well it's become pretty obvious that Nemi is getting bored with her baby toys!  She's started ignoring them.  She loves banging on things now instead!  She also has moved onto her stacking rings tower and her magnetic toy tower.  She is trying so hard to stack the rings already!  And she loves eating them :P  I think I need to buy some bongo drums and a xylophone!  If anybody else with kids has any suggestions email me!  I have no idea what I'm doing!!!  We went to the park yesterday with Grandpa Landon and Uncle David and Nemi slept through the whole thing!  We wandered around downtown Vancouver, got some food and Starbucks.  We had a lot of fun!  New pics!

Well it's been an exciting week.  Everybody has had a cold. Uncle Rex ended up in the ER with bronchial troubles. Aunt Charlotte later ended up in the ER with Pneumonia!  So needless to say they didn't get as much one on one time with Nemi as we had all hoped!  Cousin Luke announced his engagement to his old flame Lisa, who was incredibly sweet and beautiful!  We are so happy for them!  Congrats!!! This morning we had breakfast with Rex and Charlotte before they took off and we with them a safe trip home!

On Saturday we went to Great Grandma Kitty's and Great Great Uncle Rex and Aunt Charlotte had drove up from Kansas!  Nemi had a great time getting to know them.  And she even stood up in her playpen for Uncle Rex!  We are off today to see them again before they leave!

The last two days Nemi's been extremely congested and can't sleep.  Today I think  is the worst day, she's super grumpy and wants to sleep all the time, but the congestion has cleared and has been replaced by tons and tons of snot and runny nose and drool.  So I'm hopeful that it's working it's way through and by tomorrow she'll feel a bit better.  I've had the same thing for 3 days also.  Of course Dan is just fine :)

Today Nemi was crawling around on her foam pads on the floor, she grabbed the side of her jumper seat and pulled up!  First time she's pulled to standing on her own!  Yay!  She's getting so big :( 

Nemi has her first cold. Poor baby.  She's all stuffed up.  I've updated some new pictures.  Including ones of her new big girl cushy carseat! I wish I had one!  It looks comfy!  I see 2 new teeth popping in on the bottom row ! 

I added videos of Nemi crawling!

Yup.. it's official!  Nemi's crawling!  We did some tummy time on the mats when Daddy got home and she took off.  She's still very wobbly, but she's much better now than even that morning. I got video, but I'm too lazy to post it at the moment.  I'll do it soon!

Nemi crawled!  Okay... kinda?  She definately was crawling, but very slowly she would put up one knee then waggle it in the air and teeter totter sideways before pulling forward, then she'd do the other one, she got all the way across the floor to her destination though!  Pretty soon I won't know what to do!  I need to get baby gates ASAP!

 

Sorry everybody for the website problems.  I am aware and have reported the pictures next buttons are not working all the time, and they updated our Journal so I can't make the font bigger or colorful on the main screen for some reason, when you expand the section it does make the words bigger.

I've updated the videos. I created it's own section and took out some of the older dark ones, then added a bunch of new ones.  Check it out!

For the last 5 days we've been visiting Grandma Kitty.  Nemi's had a lot of fun talking and getting to know her great-grandma.  We went for a walk by the river and watched the ducks, then stopped by the coffee stand and played with the owner's granddaughter who was enthralled with Nemi.  Nemi also got a chance to babble with our family friends the Schwarze's.

Well my little angel inspired me. I'd been sewing clothes for her, and all my other momma friends wanted some too so I've been making a little spare change sewing custom baby clothes for them and shipping them all over the US.  So I finally just started my own site.  www.heidestitch.etsy.com

Yay me!  I'm a seller now!

Last night Nemi rolled over then sat up!  I thought it was a fluke, then this morning when I went in her room she was sitting up again!  She did it about 5 times in a row when I wasn't looking.  I kept trying to get video of it but she wouldn't perform until I turned around.  Not long before she's all over the house!  I need to get some baby gates!

Danny is going back to work Feb 28th. It's a short job, but it's 7 twelve hour days in a row so it'll help.  Thanks to everybody who kept us in their thoughts and prayers :)  Nemi has started making a new sound.  It's sort of like an extremely high decibal ear shattering squeal that she makes every time the dog or cat walks by!  I think it's time to go to the zoo!  She's sooo interested in animals!  Her favorite toys right now are her stuffed Tigger and stuffed Eyore.

It's official, We have tickets and a car reserved!  Watch out relatives Nemi's coming!

Nemi and I, and David are planning a trip to Berrien Springs MI August 14-24th.  We will be in Indianapolis on the 15th for a friends wedding, and then the 16th-the 21st is up for grabs for the Fursts, Wutzke's and Riess's.  So.  If you are a member of one of these families :)  We'd love to see you and let you meet little Nemi.  Since there is limited time I'll leave it up to all the grandparents to come up with a plan whether we do a group thing with everybody there, or if they want to be selfish and keep the time all for themselves ;)  Although we would love to see all of the cousins again, we understand if Oma and Opa and Grandma and Grandpa want to snuggle Nemi alone the whole time.  Grandma and Grandpa Furst are having their 50th wedding anniversary the weekend of the 24th so we will be occupied that last weekend with that whole family so I guess it's up to the Wutzke's and Riess's to come up with a plan and if they want pictures of the whole family or all of the cousins to try and work something out!  We plan to stay with the Furst's and we will be renting a car so we will be mobile!

Nemi is now wearing 6-9 month clothes and growing like mad.  Unfortunately we don't have any clothes in the next size!  We need 9-12 Month clothes and 12-18 Month clothes.  So if anybody has any hand me downs or an inclination to shop we'd be so happy to recieve some clothing!  Her socks are even bigger she's wearing 12 month socks now.  She also needs hats and we love Luvease all in one cloth diapers.  Especially the lace bum diapers!  You can find them at www.luvease.com  Nemi is still trying desperately to crawl, and we're trying desperately to childproof the house before she does.  She's turned into quite the chatterbox.  I've been so busy planning my mom's wedding that I haven't had time to load any new videos.  I promise I'll get to them soon.  Expect new pictures in the mail soon!

Nemi sat up on her own and we caught it on video!  It's in the video section.  I also just downloaded about 30 new videos and am steadily adding them in so check them out!  I had to make more space for them!  Nemi is now saying Dada and Daddy nonstop and has forgotten that she could ever say Mama.  I say MAMA and she smiles  and says... Dada!

First haircut... Nemi's hair was almost touching her nose it was so long and Dan has been bugging me for weeks to trim it, so I finally did it... sniff... And I did a horrible crooked job... and I hate it.  But there are pictures.

On Tuesday the 13th Nemi said Mama for the first time, and she's been babbling it ever since.  Dan tried to comfort her one night to give me a rest and she started screaming at the top of her lungs mama mama until I came running then she smiled and went back to sleep!  I think she knows what it means!  She said Dada on friday for the first time but she has only repeated it 3 or 4 times since.  There is a new video of her saying Mama on the Pictures page!

Nemi loves having her teeth brushed!  She smiles and tries to suck on the brush.  She even lets us brush her tongue! 

Her newest thing is Tags.  She finds the tags on all of her stuffed animals, toys, clothes, blankets and sits there playing with them, analyzing the tag, then ends up sucking on it!  Dan says it's her thirst for knowledge, she wants to read so badly she sucks the words up!  :-D

Nemi's growing has slowed a little but she's still 50th percentile for everything so it's fine!
26" long
16.3 lbs
16.5" head

I was a little worried she was crosseyed and the doc said it's fine but since I mentioned eye problems she referred me to a baby Ophthalmologist who has better testing equipment and can reassure me.  Dr was very happy with her growth, and with her milestones.  The only thing she hasn't hit is sitting up, which is fine.  She's standing very well and she was impressed with her smile!

NEMI CUT HER 2ND TOOTH!!!!!

NEMI CUT HER FIRST TOOTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well it's been a little while since I posted!  Nemi will be 6 months old on Friday!  Her newest thing is reaching out and grabbing your cheeks with both of her hands then quickly shoving your nose into her mouth with a deathgrip around your head, sometimes she misses and gets your eyeball.  We call her a little canibal.  She wants to eat your nose!  She never bites down or sucks, she just sticks it in her mouth and leaves a slobber trail!  Who knows....

We spent New Years Eve at Nana Gwen's house.  On New Years Day we went back and did a late Christmas celebration with the whole family.  The pictures are in the new January folder!  Uncle David got Nemi some very cool new toys.  One is a vibrating teether!  She loves it!  Thanks Uncle David!

Merry Christmas Family and Friends!  Thank you Tante Estie for the Mozart Musical Cube!!! 

I hope this holiday season finds everybody warm in their homes close to their loved ones.  This year has been a very hard one for us, but it has taught me the value of family.  The first Christmas after all was the celebration of the birth of a child.  And here I am.  On Christmas morning, thanking God all over again for the birth of a beautiful child.

Another very generous friend sent us a package today!  Nemi got a full set of dishes with lids and sippy cups and utensils.  She also sent us a book on 100 baby foods to make and these neat little gadgets that you put food into that baby can suck through the mesh to keep from eating the stringy bits and choke. I've deleted the things we've already recieved from her christmas list! 

A very generous friend sent us a beautiful exersaucer for Nemi and she absolutely loves it!  I'm uploading pictures and a video now!

Babies first snow pictures in the December folder!!! I am SOOO excited about these that I limped through the ice to get them taken!  And now I need a nap!

Thank you Oma and Opa for your nice cards and gifts!  And thanks to Tante Estie for her package!  Nemi was sure to tell me that she can't wait to open her wrapped present under the tree!  We have decided to open a money market investment account with all of Nemi's birthday and holiday money.  That way when she's older it will have grown and she can chose to spend it on college or a car or a house payment or whatever she needs.  I thought it would be the most useful thing to do with the little bits of money here and there.  After all it is her money, why not let her spend it?!

Well nemi Did green beans last week and she seemed to like them alright!  We started sweet potatoes yesterday and at first she grinned and grinned.  Then she just started spraying Dan with the remnants, so we're not sure if she likes them or not!

 

So most of you probably heard that I had to have surgery wednesday to remove my gallbladder.  I want everybody to know I'm doing well.  I'm obviously in some pain but I can notice a difference in the pain level from yesterday and today.  The Dr says it'll only take a week to get back to feeling like myself again!

Nemi rolled from her back to her front for the first time today!!!  She has always rolled from her front to back up until now!  Yay Nemi!  New videos coming in a few minutes, Check them out, there is one of Dan making funny noises at Nemi and one of him singing a silly song, both of them she is cracking up laughing!

We started summer squash yesterday and Nemi made a wierd face, then swallowed the first couple of spoon fulls.  Then she started spitting every spoonful out at me!  She did the same thing today.  So I'm not sure if she likes it or not!

Nemi says Happy Thanksgiving to all you turkey lovers, and Tofurkey lovers as well. 

I posted our new holiday pictures in the November folder! Her Onesie says Baby's first Thanksgiving!

We had Nemi's Christmas photos taken yesterday!  They are listed in the November folder!

Nemi found her feet yesterday and has desperately been trying to stick them in her mouth since!

Last night I got up to feed Nemi and I pulled back her blankie, she was sleeping on her tummy and she just plopped right over!!! First time rolling over!  Then I came over 2 hours later and she was rolled over again.

Nemi had her checkup today and got her vaccines and was not happy about it.  Her head is 16", she is 14.6 pounds and 24" tall! She's almost 50th percentile for height and a little over 50th percentile for weight. Her head went from 5th percentile at her last checkup to almost 50th percentile!  She is an average girl.  Dr Lang said we can start solids whenever we want but we'll probably stick to nursing for a while longer.

Mommy made Nemi a new pink dress and hand embroidered pink flower's all over it and it's super cute!  Nemi's turns 4 months tomorrow!  And she has her next checkup on Nov 18th!  I'll post all her stats then! I added a bunch of new videos in the pictures tab!

Well she hasn't done it yet, but she's trying so hard!  She'll be grunting and pushing her bottom in the air and trying to roll over and she'll get frustrated and talk really loudly while she's doing it!  It's super cute.  By the way Nemi wanted to say CONGRATULATIONS to Nana Gwen And her soon to be new Grandpa Lennart!!!

Last night Nemi started having giggling fits, I would talk to her while standing her up in my lap and she just kept laughing and laughing!  She also started holding on to her rattle this week and she gets so excited when I shake it at her she'll start kicking her legs like mad, then she'll grab it and just shake it like crazy!  We're having some problems with sleep now, she's decided she doesn't want to be swaddled anymore, but she won't sleep on her back with out it.  I let her nap on her tummy but I'm still a little nervous about letting her sleep through the night on her tummy because she scoots all around the crib that way and I'm worried she'll scoot into the bar or her covers.

We weighed Anemonae on Saturday and she was exactly 15 pounds!  She is now wearing her 3-6 month clothes and will be needing 6-9 and 9-12 month clothes pretty soon.  Her closet is getting bare.  I can't believe she's gone through all of those clothes already!!!  We've been giving them to a friend who found out they are having a little girl soon too!

We had a great time at a friends halloween party.  We went as Mario, Princess peach and Toadette.  Everybody loved our matching costumes and Nemi got a lot of attention!  There were a lot of fun activities like Karaoke, bobbing for apples, the mummy wrapping contest and lots of yummy treats!

I was feeding Nemi from a bottle today and she reached up and started holding it all by herself!  I quickly took pictures, there's one at the bottom of this page and 4 new ones in the pictures page!

Well I guess it's a right of passage!  Nemi pooped in the tub and it got all over me tonight!

We took pumpkin pictures today!  Nemi did not want to cooperate and was a little upset at being stuffed in a pumpkin.. but she is a cutie pie!!!

Well Anemonae is going through a growth spurt.  We just started her in 0-3 month clothes 2 weeks ago and she's already through them and has about 20 outfits she never got to wear! :(  She's starting her 3-6 month clothes now!

There are new photos in the October Album.  We decided our picture lady was very over priced and tried doing them ourselves this time.. well... they didn't turn out too bad!  She's almost getting too big to do the one in our hands!

Well.. Tears... Nemi turned 3 months yesterday and I decided she needs to move into her own room.  Until now she's been sleeping in her playpen next to our bed.  So I just moved all of her stuff into her own room and my rocking chair so she can be fed in there.  I'm sure she'll do fine, but I'll probably have a nervous breakdown and want to check her every 15 minutes :-D  We have a small baby monitor, but it doesn't work that well so we'll see how it goes!

By popular demand :-D  I have started a folder on this page titled Nemi sleeping on Daddy.  I have had so many comments that people love these pics that I decided to make a folder just of them.  Dan hates that I'm displaying them because he says he looks lazy!  I think it's ultra cute!  Whenever we can't get Nemi down she can sleep on Daddy, they'll sleep like that for hours!  And when I pick her up she's all sweaty and warm from daddy!

This is Nemi's new website.  I don't like it as much as the old one, but it does allow us to post a lot more pictures.  Leave comments on the right side!