More pictures to post

We seem to always be behind on posting, but click here for the rest of our pictures from our San Francisco trip. We definitely recommend that as a wonderful place to visit and only wish we would have had more time there. Since then, Mali has been on yet another airplane flight to Michigan to catch up with family and friends as well as celebrate a belated Mother's Day. Our girl is a traveler!

Happy 29th Jonathan!

Belated birthday wishes to our favorite man of the house. We had a great time celebrating his birthday last week in California with yummy Italian food, San Francisco sight-seeing, and birthday hazelnut chocolate crepes. Not many guys could handle a wife experiencing not one but two pregnancies in the last year, new parenthood, and an-ever increasing number of pink clothes around the house, but he does it with grace, humor, and enthusiasm. We're grateful every day for him and his example.

We love you Jonathan/Daddy!

Home again

One great vacation. Here's a shot of us at John Muir National Park, under one of the famous redwoods. As you can tell, Mali is trying to escape, probably to go play with her dear friend and role model, Kaeta. Maybe to snack on some "boo-rahs" (aka "Cheerios" to those of us over age 2) together.

More pictures to follow.

Mali's milestones

Yes, we realize that she's been practicing standing for weeks now, but nothing quite prepares for you walking in to see your child whom you laid down and tucked into bed now standing fully upright in her crib. And of course, incredibly proud of herself.

She had another big event last week, on her 10-month birthday--her first word! Not, the "mama", "dada" or "baby" that we've been practicing, but while we were at Whole Foods, a complete stranger walked down our aisle, and Mali greeted her with a distinct "HI!". The woman herself said "You just said hi!", and again, smiles all around. We're now working on saying it to people we actually know and love, but no luck so far.

Why we love Fridays

For about a month now, we've been participating with our neighbors in a new way of buying produce in our neighborhood, Community-Supported Agriculture. Basically, we signed up in advance for a "share" of local farmer's produce. Then, every Friday we pick up a box of whatever is in season that week. Today, we expect to get salad greens, portabella mushrooms, farm-fresh eggs, tomatoes, sunflower sprouts, green onions, and watercress. Other weeks have included fresh cheese and bread.

We're not always sure how to prepare the foods, but the research has been fun too. The foods have always been DELICIOUS and honestly, the "surprise" of not knowing exactly what we're getting is part of the fun. It makes us feel like we're on Iron Chef. We split our portion with our neighbors and enjoy the anticipation together. Here's more information from the original article that sparked our interest.

Now off to learn how to cook and eat watercress...

Ten months old!

She celebrated by throwing her breakfast from her high chair on to the floor, as she does most mornings. We're working on this NOT becoming a pattern. I do think the spitting hobby is here to stay.

Halfway there...

We are now 20 weeks and counting into this pregnancy, and Baby Ward #2 is growing like a weed. Neither of these pictures seem to do justice to our baby's size. We've been told that this pregnancy will go by much more quickly than Mali's and September all of a sudden seems pretty close. We've had two sonograms so far and everything looks great, thankfully.

A few more answers to frequently asked baby questions:

1) The official due date is September 7. We're hoping this one is more timely than his/her older sister
2) We don't have any names chosen yet. Our boy's name for Mali was Lincoln, and that is still a strong contender.
3) Yes, we will be choosing (at least) two names before delivery, as is we will NOT be finding out the sex ahead of time. We're sorry to disappoint all of you who are dying to know that information before the birth, but we're not sorry to save that wonderful surprise for ourselves when we actually meet the baby. It was well worth it last time!

More Easter pictures

For even more spring-time cutness, click here.

Easter blessings to all.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

Celebrate good times...

We're winding down after a wonderfully busy and celebration-filled weekend. Mali not only slept all during church this morning (something she hasn't done since she was 6 days old) but also napped until 6:30 pm tonight! Maybe it had something to do with having Grandpa's lap to cuddle in during church today.

Speaking of grandparents, before we post about Easter (including lots more pictures) we'd like to wish Grandpa Gregg (Kaethe's dad) and Grandma Deni (Jonathan's mom) happy birthdays this past week. We loved having them here to share such special days!

Now back to un-spoiling our little girl...

Signs of things to come?

We've been having fun visiting new babies recently and Mali is definitely intrigued. As you can see from her expression, she's not sure what other emotions to express. Of course, the first thing new parents say when seeing her is "You're SO big!". How do they grow so much in nine months? Was our big girl once THAT little?

Here are pictures of her with her adorable new friend Jack (more pictures of that little cutie can be seen on his own blog, The Ryans,). Check out how closely we have to hold her hands so she doesn't completely scare him.

Nine Months Old

She has now been out of the womb virtually as long as she was in the womb!

Amalia June Ward is now officially on the go--scooting, rolling, creeping, and almost crawling everywhere. That is, when she's not too busy going out to eat and visiting newborn babies (pictures to follow in upcoming posts). Her current favorite toys, listed in order, are:

1) Anything she is not allowed to play with, i.e. plants, electrical sockets, heating grates, buttons on the computer, tubes of diaper ointment, and electrical cords.

2) Mommy and Daddy's books that she can reach on the bookshelf. We are continually entertained to turn around to find her immersed in reading material like "The Complete Fondue Cookbook".

3) The paper feed button on the printer (we do allow this one, just to enjoy the look on her face when the papers shoots out of the printer).

4) Doors and drawers, and anything else that opens and closes.

5) Her hairbrush, resulting in it being lost throughout the house.

6) Measuring cups and spoons.

7) Any of her own toys, books, or stuffed animals.

A break from baby-related blogging

For those of you waiting in anticipation, the Ward family has completed not one, but two NCAA brackets and we are eagerly awaiting the tournaments today. Our first one, based primarily on our sentimental favorites has Wisconsin vs. Pitt and Marquette vs. Ohio State in the Final Four. Obviously, we expect Wisconsin to win it all. Go Badgers. We were disappointed, however, to have to choose between Marquette and Michigan State.

Sentiments aside and based only on our immense college basketball knowledge, we predict Florida vs UCLA and North Carolina vs. Ohio State in the Final Four, with Ohio State winning it all. At least we did get a shout-out to the Big Ten in there.

And for our Michigan readers, remember that betting over $5 in the tournament could cost you a $1000 fine. See here for more details. Good thing they're really cracking down on the hard-core criminals in that state.

Again, Go Badgers!

New Developments

Coming in September...


"I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well."
(Psalm 139:14)

Eight months old

And lots of fun with Grandma Deni!

Our Valentine

Other than pictures, it's been awhile since we gave an update on Amalia June. Each day, we are amazed at how her personality develops. Eating all types of solid food is going well and she's sitting up very well by herself. She doesn't have too much interest in crawling all though she can get anywhere she wants by rolling there. She is at once fiercely independent and wildly social. She loves outings of any sort--church, the grocery store, friends' houses, you name it. She delights in playing with other kids and at at one mom's group, she's usually the loudest even though she's the youngest. We hear comments all the time about how happy she is or how content she appears.

But...as any parent knows, it's never that way all of the time. Teething is difficult for all of us. We're trying to empathize on how it must be to hurt and not be able to verbalize that (although, not for lack of trying!). She communicates in so many ways; her latest is yelling very loudly at us, usually in regards to the food she thinks she must have. Have you ever seen a seriously caffeine-deprived person in the morning? Well, that's how she is until she has her handful of Cheerios, which she must feed herself, and only with her left hand (her rules, not ours). Some babies might prefer to nurse calmly, warmly, in bed with their parents at 6:00 am, especially when there is a blizzard outside. Not our daughter. Everyone must be up, downstairs, and participating in Cheerio-fest.

And then there's bedtime. She continues not to be much of a napper, unless of course, she makes up her mind that she needs a nap RIGHT NOW. Then there's no stopping her. We've read all the books by all the doctors on this matter, Sears, Ferber, Weissbluth (for the record, Weissbluth is the best), and none quite seem to understand the tenacity of our daughter. However, regardless of whether naps happen or not, bedtime is always 6:00 (again, her rules, not ours). She is synchronized to that time--nursing begins promptly at 5:20, and asleep at 6:00. I tried to keep her up the other day to see her Daddy come home at 6:15. I wound up with a cranky, hard-to-put-down little girl by then.

So yes, we love her more each day. She teaches us about baby-hood, ourselves, and our priorities on a regular basis. Thanks, Mali, for making this an extra-special Valentine's Day. Your crazy kisses and occasional hugs make everything worth it.

February 2006 compared to February 2007

Our apologies to the Colts fans we know and love.

Vacation Update

Just in case you were wondering, we have decided on our vacation destination with our friends, The Kurths. And the winner is...SAN FRANCISCO!

However, the consolation prize (Ms. Congeniality?) goes to North Carolina.

Anyone have any sight-seeing suggestions for San Fran?

More links we love

Astute readers of our blog will notice that we've added two new links. You might remember Mike and Kellie Ryan from this picture.



Now not only do they have a blog but their first baby, Jack is expected to make his appearance in March. Kellie also has the distinction of being Mali's first official baby-sitter and we'll always be grateful to helping us ease the transition of Kaethe going back to work part-time.

Eric and Marian Larsonare friends from back in our Milwaukee days. Marian and Kaethe worked together and I think it was Marian who said how easy it was to make long-lasting friends in Milwaukee. Maybe it had something to do with the craziness of the work environment at times? They left us to join the Peace Corps and later change the world in many other ways. They now now have a beautiful daughter, Stella, and another baby on the way. What is it with blogs and babies?

By the way, Marian can also throw one wild bachelorette party. Her speciality dance move is "The Worm" while Eric is known for his "Roger Rabbit". Unfortunately (?) we don't have any pictures to post from those experiences.

Seven Months Old

Seven months, two teeth, and one dearly loved johnny-jump-up.

A beautiful day in the neighborhood...

These past few weeks have made me really proud to be a part of our neighborhood.

Unfortunately, our dear next-door neighbor, Chuck was diagnosed with lung cancer shortly after Christmas. It was especially disturbing as his sister died from the disease only a year ago. But, it was heart-warming to watch our neighborhood come together.

As Chuck's family came in to move him to North Carolina for treatment, neighbors stopped by to help in so many ways. Even former residents of the street sent cards. When the final moving day came, neighbors, some of whom had never even met the couple before, packed the U-Haul and sent them on their way. One neighbor couldn't be there himself, so he sent two employees from his shop to do the lifting and loading. As many challenges as Chuck and his wonderful wife Evelyn are facing right now, I hope it helped them to feel cared for at this time.

It's always in the back of our mind that we plan to move back to the Midwest someday, to be closer to our family. And our neighborhood is not without its challenges--it's still a street with many different people living very close together. That alone is difficult at times. But we so value the community here and are grateful for the comfort it provides. Thanks, neighbors!

Merry Christmas!

That's right, it's Christmas here. We decided to start the tradition of celebrating the "Twelve Days of Christmas", with today being the culmination. This worked out especially well since we spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with our families in Michigan. It's nice to have a small celebration time in our home, just the three of us.

Amalia's special present from us was a Cabbage Patch doll that actually came with the name "Amalie Valeria". (Amalie is the the original German form of Amalia). We found it at Walgreens, of all places, and thought it was meant for her. She was pretty impressed with it, especially the doll's pacifier.



Our favorite new decorations this year are our beautiful personalized stockings. Jonathan's mom, Deni, made these to match our tree skirt--all of which were made from the fabric that our bridesmaids wore in our wedding.

Happy New Year!

After fun with traveling and celebrating lately, we are now enjoying Jonathan's favorite holiday, New Year's Day. Football, food, and relaxing in the basement are the order of the day. We did manage to go on a walk and take Mali to the park.

Here are pictures from December '06. A blessed 2007 to all!

Winter has arrived

Welcome Home, Troy!

Our favorite solider (also known as Kaethe's sister's boyfriend), Troy, has made it safely back from Iraq.


We're grateful for his service there and of course, thankful that he is home. Hopefully the army prepared him well to take orders from his girlfriend...(no offense, Kara!)

Thanks, Troy, and we look forward to spending more time with you!

Cereal is good stuff!

Amalia is now enjoying solid foods (just rice cereal so far, not the sushi that is on her bib). We also had a wonderful Thanksgiving back home in Michigan. Click here for the highlights.

Calling all potential travel agents...

So, we're trying to plan a trip with our friends, The Kurths. Here's our current criteria:

1) Cheap airfare from both Pittsburgh and Austin, TX.
2) Reasonable hotel room prices, preferably for a two-bedroom suite.
3) Activities that are appropriate for two little adorable girls, that their parents can appreciate as well.

Other than those things, the world is our oyster. Any suggestions?

The basement is done!

After several weeks of ripping down the ceiling, tearing up carpeting, appointments with contractors, trips to Home Depot, and making decorating decisions, our basement project is completed.

It is amazing how hectic life gets when part of your house is under construction. All of the steps you take to avoid that part of the house, all of the time it takes to plan around the repairs, etc. And we had most of the work hired out! Even that takes time and coordination. Since it was so dusty because of the drywalling, we tried to keep Mali out of there for the better part of the week. But that meant that we had to work her schedule around the electrician, the carpeting appointment, the window appointment and everything else. I think any changes to a household routine are even more difficult when there is a baby involved--they seem to pick up on their parents' stress. However, egardless of the process, it is oh-so-rewarding to relax in that space again. And as you can see, Mali is a big fan of the new carpet.