The red headband saga

 Quite a long time ago my friend Maren gave Livia a red headband. You may recognize it...

...because she wore it everywhere. It didn't matter if it matched her outfit or not, she loved that headband with all her young girl heart and wore it every. single. day. We got compliments and comments on it all the time, and I think she became recognizable in Safeway as the "girl in the red headband." It actually made it really easy for me to keep track of her in crowded places, too.

But one day, disaster struck. 

In a scuffle with a friend, that red headband was broken beyond repair.

I think you can imagine her reaction (i.e. heart rending sobs for a looong time)

But what came next is what really makes this story special.

Headbands poured into our home! Her friend bought her a new one, her Grandma Baldwin sent her a new purple one, I bought her a pink one (not pictured), and....Maren sent her a new red headband!

She is one happy little girl now, and I'm happy too, because now she rotates headbands and tries to pick matching ones, instead of just wearing the red one with everything. Yay!

But you can bet on seeing her in a headband of some sort, because she puts one on the minute she wakes up, and doesn't take it off til it's time for bed. 

That's dedication. Or obsession. Whatever.

Thanksgiving

Sisters

 

 

 

The above picture has nothing to do with anything. I just like it.

For Thanksgiving this year we drove out to Utah and stayed with my sister.
We stopped and stayed the night in Reno in order to break up the drive a little for the girls. When we walked into the casino at midnight Livia perked right up and said, "Mommy! I want to play some games!"
So I explained that these games were just for grown-ups, but she responded with, "Oh, so you and daddy are going to play them?" And thus ensued the ol' gambling talk. Except she has no concept whatsoever of money, so I think it was a pretty pointless discussion.

Baby's first night in a hotel room!

 While we were in Utah we were able to visit with quite a bit of Chase's side of the family. Unfortunately I took very few pictures, but here's one with Grandma Baldwin!

 Livia was very excited to see her cousins Beckham and Ruby while we were there.

The day before Thanksgiving we met up with our friends, the Mayfields, for lunch at Cafe Rio. No pictures, but it was so good to see them!

We had a blast at Laura and Austin's house, eating good food and enjoying each others company.


Perry is always great at entertaining Liv.

 And she practically worships Emily and David!

 What, isn't this how all three-year-olds relax? Ü

 Checking out her Uncle David

 Livia has been begging us for months for a new BYU shirt, since she stained her other one with pen. So we made a quick stop at BYU and showed her around a bit. She got really excited when she saw this statue and created this shot all on her own.

 Note: The campus is almost eerily deserted the day after Thanksgiving

 Basketball game! Liv had a fabulous time and ate enormous amounts of popcorn.

 Laura arranged a craft to make turkeys out of oreos and candy corn

 Thanksgiving dinner!

 And one of the main reasons we were there...Brooklyn!

 We also visited with Doug and Susan and their family in Orem. It's always so good to see everyone and catch up!

 One of the better shots of our family we got that day, after many attempts. Livia does not know how to smile normally for the camera.

 I love these shots of Perry and Jane:

 Brooklyn's baby blessing! We felt so lucky to be there.

 Laura, Austin, and Brooklyn

 I tried rotating this picture, but it didn't work. In any case, isn't she a cutie? I just love her little dimple!

 Me and Laura with our babies. Jane looks like a giant baby. Probably because she is. Also my right hand looks really creepy in this picture.

All in all, it was a marvelous trip. The girls were really well-behaved on the drive, and we had perfectly clear weather, so I really can't complain about the trek. We loved seeing so many family members and friends, and wish we could have seen more! We had so very much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.

Tiny dancer

About a month ago I was out shopping and had Jane sitting in the front of the cart. The store was playing music fairly loudly, and suddenly I noticed that Jane was moving her head and arms in a way that suspiciously looked like dancing. I wasn't positive, but later that day I turned on some music and she started doing the same thing!

Ever since then I have struggled to get a good video of her awesome dance moves. You know how it goes...as soon as I pull out the camera she's more interested in the camera than anything else. But I did manage to catch a short clip a couple of weeks ago.

Personally, I love it. Ü

halloween videos

After publishing the post about halloween, I realized I forgot to include some videos.

The first two are from the halloween party at joy school.

For those who are interested

In case you were curious, Livia is doing awesome in her night time potty training. She still wets the bed about once a week, but that means that SIX nights a week she's able to hold it all night long!

I love not having to deal with that super-soggy pull-up every morning. And since she kept leaking out of her night-time pull-up, I think I'm actually changing sheets less often than I was before! Last week I didn't have to wash a single sheet from either child. Woo!

Halloween

I did not take nearly enough pictures of all our Halloween festivites. Considering the three parties Chase and I attended, trunk-or-treat, actual trick-or-treating, downtown los altos trick-or-treating, and two other parties that Livia attended....you'd think I'd have more than a handful of pictures. And at least one decent one of Jane. But alas! I do not. Let's just chalk it up to "living in the moment" and move on, shall we?

Me and Chase. We both went as paintings. He is a rough copy of Van Gogh's self-portrait, and I went as a Jackson Pollock painting. Chase made my costume, and did an awesome job.

 Liv put her costume together from things we already had in our dress-up box. About two months ago she came out, all dressed up and said, "Mom, I want to be a fairy princess for halloween." Done.

 Her Grandma Baldwin sent her the perfectly matching wand to complete the ensemble, and she loves to cast spells at me with it, turning me into a frog, or horse, or some other creature.

 Here's Jane in her tinkerbell costume. You may recognize it from when Livia was 6 months old. How could I not use it when they hit their first halloween at exactly the same age?

 This is the only picture I have of both girls. Sad, I know. I always meant to take another one...

 Likewise meant to get a better picture than this of Jane. Poor, neglected second child.

 I'm telling you, I have terrible pictures! Here's Livia with her joy school class. Notice that none of them are looking at the camera, and Cameron's not even in it!

 Regardless of my complete lack of photography skills, Livia had a fabulous halloween. She got lots of candy, which she has been most generous in sharing with us, and I think will have many happy memories of this holiday.

And a big thanks to everyone who threw the fabulous parties we attended!

Eating woes

Jane has been eating solid food for about a month now. And by eating I mean spitting food all over whoever is feeding her.

Really. You get that spoon close to her mouth, and she just starts to blow. It is amazing how far food can fly from the lips of a babe.

Chase took a video of this but...it's upside down. And I don't feel like figuring out how to flip it around. So instead I'll include a video of Jane "eating" her vitamins. There's no blowing, but the facial expressions when she does get a taste are a pretty good sample of what she does when we force some veggies in her mouth.

I should note, however, that in the past couple of days she has actually eaten a few spoonfuls of peaches and carrots. I know this because she spit them back up again.

Progress?



I had to include an obligatory messy eating picture. The awesome expression on her face is just a bonus.

One thing Jane does like is eating food through this little mesh-strainer-thing. I believe she was chomping on a banana here.

Happy halloween!

BAhahahahaha!

I can't get enough of Jane in this little witch's hat. Ü

One more. One more.

Note: She is not actually going to be a witch for halloween. She is tinkerbell. The official halloween pictures will come later. Probably, you know, after halloween. So I can take pictures of the grand event.

6 months old

It's hard to believe, but Jane is already 6 months old!

At six months, Jane:



-Has just learned how to sit up on her own, as of today. Yay! She still topples over after about a minute though.

-Despises baby food. I will have an entire post dedicated to this soon.

-Takes two solid naps a day. Typically from 9-11 and 2-4. That is, that's when she would nap if we were at home. Which we're usually not. But I digress...

-Sleeps decently at night. Goes to sleep around 7:30 pm, usually wakes up around 1 or 2 for her first feeding, then again around 4:00. Sometimes only wakes up once in the night, but almost always wakes up in the morning at 6:30 a.m. This early-riser business is not gonna fly.

-Loves her baths, her white blanket, and anything she can put in her mouth.

-Is 26.5 inches long and weighs 17 lbs. She's 70th percentile in everything. Liv has always been around the 30th percentile, so Jane's quite a bit bigger. Wouldn't it be funny if she stayed that way and Chase and I created a tall child? Ü

-Rolls and scoots like crazy.

And now lots of pictures. Because it's her half-birthday and I can.

 

Ahh! Don't you just want to eat her up?!

Reading in bed:

 Hanging out with the older girls (who had been playing dress-up):

 Enduring some lovin' from Livia:

 Sitting up!

 I found her this way one day. Apparently Livia wanted her to play dress-up, too. Ü

We just love our little Janie!