3 Years Old

Happy third birthday to D.L.F.!

 

D.L.F. helped T put up streamers and balloons this morning, and then my parents took the kids for a while so T and I could take care of more party preparations. I baked a gluten-free coconut carrot cake based on this recipe, although I tweaked it by using a mix of brown rice and coconut flours, and adding extra eggs, some applesauce, and xanthan gum, and using honey and stevia in place of sugar. Oh, and using half butter and half coconut oil for the oil. With all those changes, I was really hoping the cake would turn out all right, and it did. It was moist and tasty. I frosted it with a cream cheese and maple syrup frosting. We had lasagna and salad for dinner.

 

The kids had a wonderful time with my parents and Uncle J, who kindly brought his guitar and played lots of fun songs. D.L.F. received lots of nice presents, including some new clothes, books, Duplos, and perhaps his favorite gift, his very own tricycle ("It's a motorcycle!" he gleefully exclaimed as T wheeled it down the hallway toward him). What is nice about the trike, since we live on a busy street and don't have a yard of our own, is that is folds up and is pretty light, so I can just hook it over the handlebars of the stroller when I walk the kids to the park, and D.L.F. can ride it there.

 

Oh yeah, this little imp was at the party, too:

 

A Few Everyday Moments I Want to Remember About My Kids' Toddler Years

-When they sit close together while watching a movie, sometimes they grab each other's hands and laugh uproariously as they shake their arms up and down together.

-If Cupcake sees Baseball Guy lying on the floor, she will pick him up and go in search of D.L.F. Then she will hand Baseball Guy over while gleefully exclaiming, "GUY!" D.L.F. usually says, "Thank you; that was very nice of you." Cupcake is very attached to her own lovey, Rosie, whom she usually also calls "Guy," although sometimes she'll say "Ro-ee."

-Cupcake knows she's not supposed to touch the dishwasher while I am loading and unloading dishes, so instead she'll walk into the kitchen, peer down at the opened dishwasher door, tell herself, "No-no!", walk out of the kitchen, then walk back into the kitchen and repeat over and over until she finds something more interesting to do.

And now I shall post two pictures of D.L.F. when he was a baby, for no good reason except that he was (and still is) so cute, and I love him.

 

 

Computer Clarification

Today I overheard D.L.F. telling Cupcake that she wasn't allowed to use the computer, because "it's only for grown-ups and Papa."

Excuse My Messy Chin...

...but I just finished a cookie (and I liked it).

 

Zonk

Just how we like 'em on long car rides:

 

 

Beach Trip with T's Parents

I'm finally getting around to posting some pictures from a trip to the beach a few weeks ago with T's parents. It was COLD and WINDY, which explains the funny expressions and windblown 'dos.

 

 

 

 

He's More Fun than a Barrel of Monkeys

More quotes from D.L.F.:

(As he patted the couch under him): "I am sitting on the Christian!" (he meant "cushion").

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"The stroller stepped on my foot!"

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Updated to add:

When we were driving home from vacation this past Saturday, there was one stretch with lots of tall trees on both sides of the road. T and I were commenting to each other how pretty the landscape was and describing the trees, and all of a sudden, D.L.F. piped up from the backseat: "TOILET-trees!" I guess he'd acquired some of our vacation-packing lingo and had been waiting for an opportunity to use it.

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Whenever I am ready to get D.L.F. up, I stand outside his bedroom door and ask, "Is there a [D.L.F.] in there?" Usually, he simply says, "Yes." Today when I asked that question, however, he replied, "I hope so!"

And Another Quote

D.L.F. to Cupcake in the bath: "Don't touch the water, or you might get wet."

Quote from D.L.F.

"I don't like oats in my oatmeal."

Weekend Getaway

This past weekend, T and I left the kiddos with my parents and went camping! We took the kids camping with us last fall, but T and I had never camped by ourselves before.

We took off Friday afternoon and got to the campground around 4. We set up camp and T managed to make a fire, even with partly-wet wood. We roasted hot dogs over the fire and then drove to the beach, which was only a few minutes away by car. We walked along the beach and then sat and talked for a while. We headed back to the campsite and T went to sleep. I stayed up reading until midnight, because I'm overly noise-sensitive, and there were people talking and cars driving by until then. At that point, I attempted to sleep, but didn't end up dropping off until 2 AM...and then we were awakened around 6 AM by other campers getting up to start their day. The lack of sleep that night was the one part I didn't enjoy about our weekend away, but the rest of the time made up for it.

On Saturday, we browsed at a nearby outlet mall and bought a pair of work pants for T and a set of C.S. Lewis's letters to his friends and family that T is supposed to forget about, and I will give to him for his birthday in September. Then we had a quick lunch and went to see the movie "Up." I really liked it, but I was glad I brought a tissue...I bawled most of the way through. Then we hiked down to a different beach (where we sat and ate Subway sandwiches the night we got engaged 5 years ago...that was before I knew T had anything up his sleeve...actually, I didn't really suspect anything until T was practically pulling out the ring, but that's another story for another day). We each found a walking stick on the beach and used it to hike back up to our car. Then we drove a short distance to a state park and hiked out to the "rock" overlooking the ocean where T asked me to marry him. We didn't take any pictures this trip, but here's a picture of us hiking out to the rock the night we got engaged (apparently I had abandoned my walking stick at that point in favor of holding T's hand).

 

Then we drove back to a little side road where we parked and again hiked down to the beach and built a bonfire and sat and talked until way after dark. After that, we hiked back up to our car again and tossed our walking sticks in the bushes...and found the same sticks we had used the night we got engaged, still lying there in the bushes. I guess we're starting a collection. :-)

That night, we were so exhausted from miles of hiking that we slept much better and much longer. On Sunday, we packed up our things, went swimming in the campground's indoor pool, ate lunch at a seafood restaurant, and then headed home.

D.L.F. and Cupcake had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa (thanks, Mom and Dad!). They read lots of books and went to a park and a "sprayground." Here are a few pictures of their time together.

 

 

 

Isn't it cute how the kids are both snuggling their buddies in that last picture?

2 Pictures

Cupcake has discovered climbing, and she's pretty good at getting herself into awkward positions, but not so great yet about getting out of them. I had to snap this picture before I got her out of her predicament.

 

I got my hair cut short for the summer. I took this picture of myself, so it's not the greatest quality, but here it is.

 

Rose Garden

T is home sick, so I decided to get the kids out of the house so he could rest. We went to the Rose Garden. It was my first time there, even though I've lived in the area for six years. It was beautiful, but crowded, and there were so many stairs! Cupcake was in the stoller, so I had to carry the stroller up and down many different sections of stairs. I think there was supposed to be a ramp somewhere, but I never found it. D.L.F. did a great job of climbing all the stairs by himself. I didn't get many pictures, because it's hard to push a stroller and take care of two little kids and take pictures at the same time, but here are a few:

 

 

 

 

Ow!

I was in another room and overheard D.L.F. saying, "I am pulling your hair! Can you say, 'Ow!'?"

I thought he was talking to Cupcake, so I hurried in and was relieved to find that he was only pulling on the yellow yarn hair of Rosie, Cupcake's lovey (the feminine equivalent of Baseball Guy).

From His Perspective

Today D.L.F. was looking at the book Go Dog Go and saw a picture of a dog wearing roller skates. He said, "That dog has car sandals!"

Beach!

With the hot, muggy weather we've been experiencing, we've been itching to visit the beach for quite a while, and today we got our chance. D.L.F. remembered the beach from last year, and he was so excited when he figured out that's where we were going. It was such fun to get our city children out into God's creation where they could move and explore to their hearts' content.

When we got to the beach, I set Cupcake in the sand, and she was off! She practiced her gymnastics moves...



and checked out a big stick...


ate some sand...


and liked it so much she attempted to cover every square inch of her body with it.


D.L.F., on the other hand, mostly wanted to hang out with Papa...


and everyone played in the water.

Rhododendron Garden

Sleeping Baby

 

 

Precious One-Year-Old!

 

Cupcake turned one on May 5. She has been a joyous addition to our family! I am so grateful to be the mother of such a sweet, special little person. If you follow this link, you can read her birth story and see pictures of her as a newborn.

Things that make her happy at this point are her family and friends, bananas, cats, stuffed animals, baths, and music (she does the cutest little boogie whenever she hears music!). She is a super imitator and tries to copy sounds and people's movements. She is crawling and pulling up on things, but is not walking alone yet. She says, "Papa," "Mama," "nana" (banana), "ca" (cat), something resembling "cracker," and she refers to both books and socks as "k."

Her soft, downy hair is getting longer. I love to snuggle her and kiss the top of her head over and over. She puts her thumb in her mouth and leans against me. I treasure these days.

End-of-April Update

-T accidentally reformatted a hard drive with ALL our pictures on it--wedding pictures, baby pictures, everything. But he found some software to reverse the damage. It cost $40 (grrrrr), but it's worth it to have all those pictures back.

-We have a new church. Have I mentioned that? We used to be part of a house church, but God led people in different directions, and so that house church is no more. Our new congregation has about 150 people, and it's within walking distance of our house.

-This past weekend was the church women's retreat. Cupcake is eating solids so well now (she literally will eat anything and everything you put on her tray), and she'll be a year old in two weeks, so I decided she could live without me for a couple of days. T said she did great, and other than looking around and saying "Mamamamama" sometimes, she didn't seem to miss me too much. There were about 40 women at the retreat, and I learned almost everyone's name. I felt blessed that so many welcomed me, talked with me, and even wrote me notes! I did nurse Cupcake when I got home, but she just doesn't seem all that interested any more (and hasn't for a month or two), so I don't know how much longer I'll keep it up. I'm kind of looking forward to being done with nursing (until the next baby), as I've been either pregnant and/or nursing for the past 3 1/2 years.

-D.L.F. has, of his own volition, started walking everywhere lately! This is good because 1) the umbrella stroller (for Cupcake) is WAAAY easier to haul down and up the stairs than the double stroller, and 2) walking wears D.L.F. out, thus he takes really long naps!

Misheard

Yesterday while we were eating dinner, a car honked loudly outside, and D.L.F. imitated the sound perfectly.

"He was right on pitch," I said to T.

D.L.F. giggled and said "ARMPITS!" and started flapping his arms like a bird.