Rose is growing and talking and everyday becoming more and more a little girl and not just a baby! It's bittersweet but also very fun.
What does she like to eat?
Blueberries, pancakes, scrambled eggs, smoothies, fish, cheese, avocado and prune sauce. She LOVES prune sauce.
What does she like to play?
She loves to take care of her stuffed animal, Lamby, and her other little snugglies and baby dolls. Lamby gets the most attention: snacks in Rose's highchair, fresh diapers, naps, and 'baths' in her emptied-out toy bins. She also really enjoying her Fisher-Price ring stacker and her shape sorter - she's getting very good at putting the shapes in.
She also loves to "play out-sigh??!?!" as she frantically asks everyday. She loves walking around outside, pointing and signing and speaking about her favorite things - signs for bird and flower, and excited "Gwass! Wa-wa!" We take her to Southern's campus - the main quad/plaza/whatever you call it is a big square of beautiful lawn with pathways all around with plenty of flowers, with stairs and a fountain nearby. We actually walked around there for an hour this morning. Our new MO is taking Rose outsides in both the morning and afternoon so she can explore and wear herself out, and then naps and sleeping come a lot easier!
Baths
She loves baths, especially because I just got her some Burt's Bees bubble bath, which smells really good and makes fun bubbles. She puts her bath toys in a "bow" or boat (again, an empty container from her toy shelf) and likes to sail them before capsizing into bubbles.
Books
Rose has very definitive opinions on books. She loves them and knows which ones she wants to read at what time. It's pretty cute. Bobby will hold one after another up for her to see and she will say, "No. No. No. No. YESH!" Recent favorites are anything by Dr. Seuss, Ellie (aka Oliver) the Elephant, a few different board books, and any book with the alphabet or numbers. I picked up Chicka-Chicka-Boom-Boom for her in Target a few days ago, and I was REALLY suprised when she opened it and said "Ah Bee Seeeees!" Don't think she knows the letters individually yet, but she recognizes them! We've also realized we can get a little extra sleep if we stack some her favorites at the opposite end of the crib from where she's sleeping. When she wakes up, she looks through them quietly before calling for us.
We've also started checking out books on tape at the library. We've been listening to The Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh and Kipling's Just-So Stories. She takes on a very serious expression when these are playing in the car, and will sometimes mimic the words. (So when Christopher Robin pulls Pooh down the stairs - "thump, thump" Rose goes "Ump! Ump!"). It's nice for me too - I think we'll just keep listening through classics!
Words
A ton of words! I don't even think I can recall them all. But she's starting to put two words together now - "Byebye Mommy," "Milk pleash", "Lamby gaga" (lamby bath), and so on. She also likes learning people's name, especially her buddies at church. "Wooth, Si, Ya-Ya, Nay and JuJu," translate to Ruth, Silas, Josiah, Nate and Juliet. It's really cute!
All I can think of for now. I will post new pictures soon!
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Friday, June 24, 2011
For Jane
Rose loves roasted seaweed - the sheets you would usually use as an accompaniment to something else. She'll try to dive into the cart from her little seat if she sees me buy them in the grocery. She loves sweet things, but certainly favors salty over sweet. We try to keep it to a minimum, and she loves when she gets her favorite treats.
The Battle of Laundry Deep
I'm pretty bad at laundry. I don't enjoy it, I'm lazy with it...there - suprisingly -always seems to be more, and didn't I just do a ton of laundry...last week?
Motivating myself to do it is always hard, but then actually doing it well has taken trial and error. What do I mean? In general, we like tidy and not gross, and I'm not too picky on a day to day basis - what I am very picky about what I use to clean. I'm totally brand-loyal once I find something I like, and it's taken me three and a half years of marriage to figure out what I like to use when cleaning our clothes.
When we were first married, I went to the laundromat (out of necessity). Then, we had a washer/dryer in the basement of the house we lived in during B's internship. Then a full washer/dryer in the kitchen of our studio (aka extra counter space). Now a washer/dryer in a closet off the bathroom - and the washer needs to hook up to the bathroom sink to clean. Okay, so I've figure out the machinery...mostly.
But I wasn't sure WHAT to use to clean, and what actually worked. I've tried a lot of stuff - everything unscented (I'm highly allergic to artifical scents) and still I wasn't really satisfied (too much filler = more waste, extra ingredients I didn't like going into the water supply, didn't work well for what it was, etc).
So after much trial and error and reading and experimenting, I think I've finally figured out what to use when cleaning our clothes. And I'm telling you all because if you've been a tormeted laundry-cleaner, perhaps this can help you.
So - I wash our clothes in Charlie's Soap Powder. It smells like clean, and doesn't make me sneeze. I bought it for cloth diapers and now use it on everything. I use BioKleen Bac-Out for stain removal (on all stains really - clothes, carpet, etc - it's great) and for the time being, OxiClean Free oxygen bleach for soaking really bad stains. I also use a downy ball filled with vinegar for a softener...no more dryer sheets (you can also just pour in vinegar during the rinse cycle, but I tend to forget this step once I've got it going).
Finally, I decided to stop using our dryer for most clothes drying. It doesn't have a heat setting - just a timer and on/off. I feel like it's set on SuperNova Heat...I dried some of Bobby's nicer shirts in there, and they all shrunk. (See? Not good at laundry). So once I realized I was hanging all our pants and shirts on hangers after washing a load of laundry, I bought a new drying rack. It takes up a huge piece of real estate (unfolded), but fits over a load easily. I'm really liking using it. No more unfortunately short sleeves and pantlegs. And that, my friends, is a good thing.
Motivating myself to do it is always hard, but then actually doing it well has taken trial and error. What do I mean? In general, we like tidy and not gross, and I'm not too picky on a day to day basis - what I am very picky about what I use to clean. I'm totally brand-loyal once I find something I like, and it's taken me three and a half years of marriage to figure out what I like to use when cleaning our clothes.
When we were first married, I went to the laundromat (out of necessity). Then, we had a washer/dryer in the basement of the house we lived in during B's internship. Then a full washer/dryer in the kitchen of our studio (aka extra counter space). Now a washer/dryer in a closet off the bathroom - and the washer needs to hook up to the bathroom sink to clean. Okay, so I've figure out the machinery...mostly.
But I wasn't sure WHAT to use to clean, and what actually worked. I've tried a lot of stuff - everything unscented (I'm highly allergic to artifical scents) and still I wasn't really satisfied (too much filler = more waste, extra ingredients I didn't like going into the water supply, didn't work well for what it was, etc).
So after much trial and error and reading and experimenting, I think I've finally figured out what to use when cleaning our clothes. And I'm telling you all because if you've been a tormeted laundry-cleaner, perhaps this can help you.
So - I wash our clothes in Charlie's Soap Powder. It smells like clean, and doesn't make me sneeze. I bought it for cloth diapers and now use it on everything. I use BioKleen Bac-Out for stain removal (on all stains really - clothes, carpet, etc - it's great) and for the time being, OxiClean Free oxygen bleach for soaking really bad stains. I also use a downy ball filled with vinegar for a softener...no more dryer sheets (you can also just pour in vinegar during the rinse cycle, but I tend to forget this step once I've got it going).
Finally, I decided to stop using our dryer for most clothes drying. It doesn't have a heat setting - just a timer and on/off. I feel like it's set on SuperNova Heat...I dried some of Bobby's nicer shirts in there, and they all shrunk. (See? Not good at laundry). So once I realized I was hanging all our pants and shirts on hangers after washing a load of laundry, I bought a new drying rack. It takes up a huge piece of real estate (unfolded), but fits over a load easily. I'm really liking using it. No more unfortunately short sleeves and pantlegs. And that, my friends, is a good thing.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
I Hate Tornadoes
So yesterday (Wednesday) Bobby and I had planned to go to this nicer restaurant on Bardstown Road to celebrate an unexpected bonus he received - plus it'd just been a long time since we'd been out to a nice restaurant!
Our friends TC and Melissa were going to watch Rose (while she slept) and our reservation was for 8:15 PM. At 7:45 Bobby got a texted weather alert from our local weather channel. Tornado WARNING until 8:00! We were still home and wondering...what?! Totally clear outside! We checked the internet: a small bit of storms in southwest (I think) Louisville. We live in the north-central/north-east part of town - and it's a big town. It looked isolated and then Bobby got another text that the warning expired at 8:00. Okay, well, still clear - and we had time to make our reservation, so we went.
The restaurant is like 15 minutes away. Half way there it started POURING. Deluge style. I've never seen rain that hard. We made it to the restaurant, not sure what we're going to do. No parking, so we pull behind the restaurant into the alley...which is now a small creek. We pull into a neighboring store's parking lot to figure out if we should go home or try to go to dinner. Then - Bobby gets a text "Tornado warning for your home extended" at the same time the sirens (the eeries sirens) come on. We look at each other, and know that we're going to power home.
Worst drive ever. It was raining SO HARD. Bobby did great. I started crying half-way through because I had no idea if there was a tornado near our house - it all happened so quickly. I just wanted to be back with Rose. Bobby was very calm, but he told me later he was really worried that if there was a tornado and we were driving...
We got home by the grace of God. So began two hours of the weirdest weather Louisville has seen in a long time. A lot of funnel clouds (so they didn't actually touch down) all throughout the city - in neighborhoods of friends, workplaces, etc. One was actually a few miles down the road our restuarant was on, at the time we were driving the other way. The one tornado that came down destroyed part of the Downs (where the Kentucky Derby is held) and knocked power lines at UofL. That's south of us about 20 minutes.
The first storm we had seen was just the first blip of many that came through. And it started so quickly that there really hadn't been a lot of hype or warning. If we thought it was going to happen like it did, we definitely wouldn't have gone anywhere!
So, Bobby (and our friends TC and Melissa) and I camped out watching the computer to see if we needed to take cover. Then our neighbor Steven (he actually lives in a house whose backyard is in our frontyard, if that makes sense) came over and told us we could go in their basement. We decided to do it (though I felt bad as we trekked over there...some of our apartment neighbors were doing their best to sweep water away from their front doors - ours is raised in such a way that that's not a problem for us). We woke Rose up, stuck her in the ergo, and headed over.
We hung out for an hour until the last storm passed. Then Bobby and I stayed up until after midnight - the adrenaline high was too much to just go to sleep easily.
My typical day schedule? It happens, most days. But we all stayed in bed until 8:30 today (so.tired.). I visited my friend Shauna, who had me and our friend Anne over. Anne and Shauna's older kids were doing an evening VBS at a local church and they were camped out there until way late. Lots of adventures were had....
It's funny. People who've grown up in the mid-west are much more...calm about tornadoes! I guess if it's a part of life since when you were small it's not as scary. But we're from California.
Anyways, more thunder storms forcasted tonight. I hope they don't become tornadoes. If they do, we'll be in our neighbors' basement...listening for a train noise (!).
Our friends TC and Melissa were going to watch Rose (while she slept) and our reservation was for 8:15 PM. At 7:45 Bobby got a texted weather alert from our local weather channel. Tornado WARNING until 8:00! We were still home and wondering...what?! Totally clear outside! We checked the internet: a small bit of storms in southwest (I think) Louisville. We live in the north-central/north-east part of town - and it's a big town. It looked isolated and then Bobby got another text that the warning expired at 8:00. Okay, well, still clear - and we had time to make our reservation, so we went.
The restaurant is like 15 minutes away. Half way there it started POURING. Deluge style. I've never seen rain that hard. We made it to the restaurant, not sure what we're going to do. No parking, so we pull behind the restaurant into the alley...which is now a small creek. We pull into a neighboring store's parking lot to figure out if we should go home or try to go to dinner. Then - Bobby gets a text "Tornado warning for your home extended" at the same time the sirens (the eeries sirens) come on. We look at each other, and know that we're going to power home.
Worst drive ever. It was raining SO HARD. Bobby did great. I started crying half-way through because I had no idea if there was a tornado near our house - it all happened so quickly. I just wanted to be back with Rose. Bobby was very calm, but he told me later he was really worried that if there was a tornado and we were driving...
We got home by the grace of God. So began two hours of the weirdest weather Louisville has seen in a long time. A lot of funnel clouds (so they didn't actually touch down) all throughout the city - in neighborhoods of friends, workplaces, etc. One was actually a few miles down the road our restuarant was on, at the time we were driving the other way. The one tornado that came down destroyed part of the Downs (where the Kentucky Derby is held) and knocked power lines at UofL. That's south of us about 20 minutes.
The first storm we had seen was just the first blip of many that came through. And it started so quickly that there really hadn't been a lot of hype or warning. If we thought it was going to happen like it did, we definitely wouldn't have gone anywhere!
So, Bobby (and our friends TC and Melissa) and I camped out watching the computer to see if we needed to take cover. Then our neighbor Steven (he actually lives in a house whose backyard is in our frontyard, if that makes sense) came over and told us we could go in their basement. We decided to do it (though I felt bad as we trekked over there...some of our apartment neighbors were doing their best to sweep water away from their front doors - ours is raised in such a way that that's not a problem for us). We woke Rose up, stuck her in the ergo, and headed over.
We hung out for an hour until the last storm passed. Then Bobby and I stayed up until after midnight - the adrenaline high was too much to just go to sleep easily.
My typical day schedule? It happens, most days. But we all stayed in bed until 8:30 today (so.tired.). I visited my friend Shauna, who had me and our friend Anne over. Anne and Shauna's older kids were doing an evening VBS at a local church and they were camped out there until way late. Lots of adventures were had....
It's funny. People who've grown up in the mid-west are much more...calm about tornadoes! I guess if it's a part of life since when you were small it's not as scary. But we're from California.
Anyways, more thunder storms forcasted tonight. I hope they don't become tornadoes. If they do, we'll be in our neighbors' basement...listening for a train noise (!).
What Did We Do Today?
As Rose gets older and a lot more active, I'm trying to proactively think through our days so I can care for her, me, Bobbby and our home well. I've worked out a bit of a rough schedule, which tends to look like this:
7:15 AM Get up
7:30 Get Rose Up
7:30-8:00 Read books
8:00-8:30 Eat Breakfast, play
8:30-9:30 Crib time for Rose; Shower and Quiet Time in the bible and prayer for me
9:30-10:00 Play, prepare to go out
10:00-12:00 Errands or hanging with a friend, playground, walk, pool, etc.
12:00-1:00 Lunch, playtime, stories
1:00-3:30 Rose Naps, I check email/internet, clean, prep dinner, laundry, sew, write notes, call a friend...usually just 1 or 2 of those things!
3:30-5:00 Play or errand or walk or hang-out with a friend.
5:00-6:00 Finish preparing dinner, Bobby finishes work
6:00-6:30 Eat dinner
6:45 Family Devotions - Bible, Prayer
7:00 Rose's Bath/Bed
7:30 Clean Kitchen and House
8:00 Collapse. Just kidding. Bobby and I read or watch a movie or talk, I sew, go out with a friend to coffee, exercise, etc. We also go on regular date-nights after Rose goes down ( a friend stays at the house) and we have small group with folks from church once a week.
So...that's what we do all day!
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Picnic
We recently went on a picnic to a park about 10 minutes away from us, right near the Ohio River. It was really hot but we had a good time...and Rose loved getting her energy out.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
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