A shout-out to parents

"Children do not accidentally become righteous leaders or emotionally healthy and productive adults--any more than seeds thrown randomly to the wind grow to be part of a thriving garden. Simply throwing children into a cultural tornado and hoping for the best gives them little chance of living up to their potential or coming out unharmed. Someone needs to take responsibility for their nurture, protection, nourishment, intellectual development, manners, recreation, personal needs, and spiritual development. Someone needs to commit time and energy into staying close to them as they grow, encouraging and correcting and teaching."

--Sally Clarkson, The Mission of Motherhood

(a book I should try to find time to read)

Summer lovin'

Free jazz concert at our favorite walking-distance-away park, sunshine, fun neighbors, and a dinner menu of chips, salsa, garden veggies, peanuts, and brownies.



Can life get any better?



Jonathan and Mali vote "no".

Fourteen Months Old

Since she's no longer able to sit still long enough for a monthly Winnie the Pooh picture, here are a few other updates on our (for a few days more) only child:

1) She is WALKING! (kind of). She took her first few steps on August 13th, and now averages about five steps a day. She hasn't really caught on to what she can do with that new trick. Of course, she would much prefer to be moving vertically, and climbs every piece of furniture in our house. We have a feeling she may skip walking altogether and go directly to sprinting.

2) On the same day she took her first steps, she also learned the signs for "bird", "hat", and "dog". Add that to "more" and "hot" and she has quite the sign language repertoire.

3) Her actual words now include "Daddy", "Mama", "Hi", "Uh-oh", "Up", and "Hi-yi-yi".

4) Fruits, broccoli, yogurt, pancakes, and meat of any kind top her favorite food list. Much like her mommy, she DOES NOT like milk, although we're not ready to completely accept that yet. She drinks water like it's going out of style.

5) The good news is she understands the word "no". The bad news is, she definitely gets practice hearing it and we are seeing a defiant side to our precious little girl at times. Time-out does seem to work. She still enjoys lying her head on the floor and pouting when she doesn't get her way. She does NOT appreciate our laughing about it.

6) Unlike her extremely mild-mannered parents, our kid is opinionated! (I'm sure no one missed the sarcasm there). She insists on eating with a fork, reading her specific choice of books, and even wearing her sunglasses if and only if she is in the mood. Last week she wore her sunglasses while we carried her into church--and left them on for half of the service! Considering it was raining outside, she looked like she was either being chased by the paparazzi or had a tough night of partying behind her.

7) She was excited to welcome her newest friend into the world on August 9, 2007. Adison Elizabeth was born to our friends Mike and Kim Hildebrand. We can't wait to meet that little cutie, especially as we pride ourselves in being the first to know that she was coming into the world. Hopefully these little girls can help their daddies stay out of trouble.

8) She also did great while Grandma Sandy watched her overnight last weekend and enjoyed being spoiled. (Good preparation for the upcoming weeks...). Plus, Great-grandma Dena came to visit this weekend and it was wonderful to watch those two get to know each other even better.

How middle-aged are we?

We've been meaning to post this for a while...but the newest light of our life is the 2002 Ford Windstar that we now own and LOVE! Seriously, who knew that they made cars with so many perks these days? Power locks that can operate from a keychain! Rear-controlled air-conditioning! (Mali loves pointing at it.)CD player! A clock that works! And space...so much space. Plenty of room for growing toddlers, bellies, and car seats.

And yes, we've heard all of the Ford jokes and don't believe them at all. (We actually were really impressed with the Consumer Reports recommendations for our van). We've decided that FORD really stands for First On Race Day, which works out well as it seems like we're on our way to becoming a stereotypical Soccer Mom and NASCAR Dad.

Bizarre things to do while in your third trimester...

1) Begin a new part-time job. Thankfully, it's been a really easy transition and allows me to focus on my real job, (mommy-hood), and the needs of my two real bosses (my children).

2) Join a new gym. It's cheaper, much closer, and much, much trendier than our other one. It makes us feel like we're not the middle-aged couple with two kids driving a minivan that we really are.

3) Pull a leg muscle (no, not related to the new gym membership) and after the pain doesn't go away for several days, go into the hospital to rule out a blood clot. Hang out on the labor and delivery floor, chat with the nurse who was there for Mali's delivery and after a leg ultrasound, hear that everything is perfectly fine. This was re-confirmed by a midwife appointment a few days later. The pain did go away after that, possibly due to the time resting in the hospital room with nothing to do but read magazines with my feet up.

Only five more weeks until due date!

My, how she's grown!

Remember this little girl?



Well, she now looks like this and has way too many things to do stop and pose for a monthly picture with Winnie the Pooh.



Take note of her new "drama queen" pose, face on the floor, that she pulls out every time we ask her to do something she doesn't want to do, i.e. sit still.

Thankfully, our neighbor, Kaleab, was visiting and was able to at least make her smile for the camera.


Click here for an entire year's worth of Winnie the Pooh pictures!