The Computer's Back!

Hooray! After dealing with my slow, buggy, disk-way-full computer for months, I now have a new hard drive, more than five times the storage, and other good stuff thanks to Tech Pros in Franklin. It might not have been a bad idea to ditch the thing and get a new (lighter-weight!) notebook, but we've had a lot of big purchases lately, and I'm hoping that this cleaned and fancified machine will last me a couple years more.

So, yay! I can blog again and share those lovely, gigantic photos that fill up my memory. First order of business, a super-quick recap of life since our big move...

We've been doing a lot of swimming in the neighborhood pool. It's great just to walk out the back door at the end of a long, hot day, and take a quick dip before dinner! Kate was timid at first, but is now jumping in from the side (into our arms) with no fear! (oh, and Matt went clean-shaven for his renewal leave in the month of June)

We also have a playground in our yard that came with the house, and behind that (see it on the ridge there?) is the neighborhood playground, so we have a lot of fun stuff to do outside this summer!

Dear friend Becca's third birthday party was in June. The theme was Super-Readers (a PBS show) and the kids sang along with the show's songs using fun microphones. Becca had the American Idol diva moves down!

Matt and I went to the Wild Goose Festival in North Carolina. Matt had wanted to go to this progressive Christian music/justice/art festival anyway, and I got to go as part of the Find Your Way Home prison tour. (Remember last summer, when we went to Houston?) Becca Stevens, the Magdalene ladies, and a few awesome Nashville musicians presented at a Raleigh women's prison and at the festival. The prison was very impressive in its commitment to rehabilitation and job skills preparation. The warden's stated goal was to help the women know that--whether they would be getting out in twenty years or never--they can have a meaningful life. The Magdalene women with us who had experienced incarceration were wowed by this facility's emphasis on hope and restoration.

And here's Matt and I at the hippie-Christian festival. The highlight for me was hearing Jennifer Knapp play. Her songs feel so much more "real" than many in Christian music.

True to my dorky, survey-loving self, I was genuinely thrilled to have been called on to be a Nielsen family for a week! We got thirty bucks and had to keep a diary of all our television viewing for a week. It's an interesting exercise to actually make note of what you watch and for how long (and how often the TV is on when no one is watching--it asks that too). Turns out, we mostly watch the news and comedy-news shows like Colbert. A few episodes of "How I Met Your Mother" and a late night showing of "Titanic" pretty much rounded out the week. 

My thirtieth birthday was July 4. Kate made this cute firecracker hat in school. I called her "my little firecracker," which made me think of my grandmother, whose words upon hearing of my birth were, "we've got another little firecracker!" since my cousin had also been born on the Fourth of July the year before.

We had a nice birthday/housewarming cookout with friends and family.

 Matt and the dads tapped the mini-kegs on the back patio...

 ... though it was mostly an indoor party, due to the crazy heat.

Kate and Becca had a big time playing together in their red, white, and blue outfits.

 After a brief siesta, some of us continued the festivities at a big concert and fireworks event at a local park.

 Kate danced with Granna and Opa...

And watched fireworks with Nala and Popi (the sweaty, tired, glazed-over look just about sums up the long day!)

Tracy, my best friend from college, came to town for my birthday and came to the fireworks as well.

And just this past weekend, we went to Atlanta for the blessing of her and her husband's marriage (they eloped two years ago and had a lovely church ceremony to bless their civil marriage). My camera wasn't cooperating, so I only have three pics from the weekend, but this one shows the sunflower theme that ran from the invitations to the bouquets to the cake! 

Whew! I'm glad to have gotten all that out there. Coming soon: my six month prego update, Kate's 2 1/2 year pics, and maybe some reflections on Romans as Matt begins an eight-week sermon series on Paul's letter and I try to practice some discipline by reading along as he prepares. 

Five Months

As of last week, I'm now five months along with Baby Claire!

I'm 23 weeks, and there's really not much to report! I'm not feeling or getting sick near so often (I think it's been two weeks since I last threw up) and I'm not so picky about what I eat now--the serious cravings are less common. I'm getting more to the "hungry" stage, where Baby is packing on weight and I'm finally gaining a little too (after losing weight during the queasy/pukey stage). I'm making sure to pack plenty for lunch and a few snacks when I head off to work, and my colleagues do a pretty good job of keeping me fed too :0)

Thanks to the cool iPad app I've been using, the Pampers "Hello Baby" app (I just looked for it in the App Store and now can't find it, so it might not be available anymore), I see that Claire is about 8 inches long and weighs around one pound. I should have done this each month, but for fun, here's what Claire looks like--real size--according to the app. (You tap the screen to toggle between a full-body view with information and the "life size" view.)

I'm not sure how that's possible, because I don't feel like I'm big enough yet to accommodate a baby that size and all my organs! I remember with Kate, though, the doctor told me I have a "deep pelvis," which can apparently hold Baby down in there without sticking out as much as she might otherwise. Claire's hanging out really low, too. Most of her early kicks were in an unmentionable region, and even now, she's clearly right under my waistband, not up in the belly that sticks out.

Anyway, fun times! I had an OB appointment yesterday, and it felt so anticlimactic (especially after waiting in the waiting room for an hour). I really had no questions, and there wasn't much to do this time besides check the heartbeat and the size of my uterus. Quad screen was last time (all good) and next time is the glucose test. It's funny how with the first, I had questions every time and wrote down everything--it's all "been there, done that" now. I haven't even opened What to Expect When You're Expecting once this time around!

Which reminds me of--and so I'll leave you with--this random movie quote. Can anyone (besides Matt) name that movie?

"I didn't read the baby books! What's gonna happen? How did anyone ever give birth without the baby books! That's right--the ancient Egyptians carved What to Expect When You're Expecting on the pyramid walls!"

Parenting Two

A couple weeks ago, I asked for advice on helping Kate adjust to having a sibling. Here, on Facebook, and via email, you all shared some great tips that I'll have to remember! The most insightful, I think, was making sure that I'm not holding the baby when Kate comes to see us at the hospital. To make sure she doesn't feel usurped, my lap should be free and ready to hold her right away.

Today I want to ask more about the practical side of parenting two kids.
What tips do you have for everyday life with two small kids?

I'm thinking of things like:
how to get everybody ready and out the door before work/school or church,
how to keep Kate in check (in parking lots, etc.) when my hands are full with an infant
what ways Kate can help out without being a danger to the baby
... and plenty of things I can't even think of right now.

I'm sure that, as with the first, you figure things out as you go until you can't even remember what life was like before, but I'd love to have a few tricks from the old pros in my pocket!

4th of July

You recall how my New Year's resolution was "only blog if I feel like it"? That was an effort to keep blogging from taking over my life and the pressure of getting five posts a week out from stressing me out. Lately, though, I've really been wanting to blog more, even contemplating starting up Project Life again, and yet either don't find the time (Kate's later bedtime and resistance to bedtime even then being a prime factor) or run into technical difficulties like my slow computer getting even more tempermental and almost-full memory refusing to upload more pictures. (I've been putting it off forever, but I really need to get a computer fix-it person to clean it up.) 

So, I hope to share new pics and old stories and all that once my computer is working better, but in the meantime, let me share one fun pic (sent to me by my MIL) from our Fun Fourth Festivities--also known as Jesstravaganza Triple-X, since it was my thirtieth birthday!

We had a birthday/housewarming cookout to celebrate, joined by a dozen or so family and friends. I think my favorite part was watching these two little sillies play together, and hearing their giggles all over the house. 

And, holy crap, I'm thirty!

Goose Egg

We've had a toddlerific evening here.

I came home 30 minutes later than usual with a throbbing headache (thanks to the jackhammering going on outside my office window). Matt already had dinner going (thanks, sweetie!) and Kate followed me upstairs to get some Tylenol, whereupon she decided she wanted to take a shower with me. Dinner was almost ready, so I told her we would do that after dinner. Full-blown toddler tantrum ensues, culminating in her biting me on the elbow (HARD!) while I tried to eat my dinner.

So, I now have a puffy red bruise on my arm.

Post-bite discipline got her calmed down, and soon she was smiling and playing on our new couch, which finally delivered yesterday! Matt and I finished eating, and the three of us cuddled on the couch for a bit. Then Kate decided to start doing belly flops on the couch, including against the arm of the couch, where Matt warned her she might flip over. And right on cue, she did a header off the couch.

So, now she has a big goose egg on her forehead.

Within ten minutes, it was red around the edge with a purple, bruisy center. Lovely. But, of course, she was back to playing, singing, and laughing by that time. Toddlers are crazy, but they sure do bounce back quickly.

(the pic was taken after our shower, which is why her hair was wet.)

And, if you're interested, here are our new couch and coffee table. The new house is taking shape!

Seals, Tigers, and Bears, oh my!

It's been a week, but as promised, I wanted to share more pics of our visit to Louisville last weekend, including our cool behind-the-scenes tour at the Louisville Zoo.

Kate enjoyed the tour of Nala and Popi's backyard paradise...

And Saturday afternoon, we went to the local splash park with my old friend Lindsay and her son Jack. We met the new baby, Emmalea, too! Jack is now four, but isn't too cool to play with a two-year-old girl. Sweet boy!

The playground at the splash park is the newest thing in playground-design, apparently. Matt and I joked it was like Nuni and Nuni's playground--everything was so sleek and modern, and they even had a slide that you ride by hooking your legs around the outside of the track--weird.

Sunday, we went to the zoo. Since we're members of the Nashville Zoo, we got in free! Those "reciprocal zoo" deals they have going on are great (I thought we just got a discount). The Nashville Zoo's design is so pleasant, with winding, tree-lined walkways and very natural habitats, but Louisville has a lot of big animals that Nashville does not--bears, lions, polar bears, etc.

Our special tour began in Glacier Run, a new area they've created for a more immersive arctic-animal exhibit. Taking a cue from Disney, the exhibit brings visitors into a "story," namely that a far-northern town is being encroached upon by glaciers and the animals have been getting more daring in their ventures into the town.

For this grizzly bear viewing area, designed like a loading dock, they've got a pickup truck that is half inside the windows and half outside, so you can sit in the cab and actually be jostled around by the grizzlies climbing and playing in the truck bed! The reflection obscures it somewhat, but here the bears are playing with big plastic trash cans in the truck bed.

And here, the "glacier" has crumbled a road into the town, raising the visitor's sense of danger before she sees the arctic beasts!

We got to go into the backsides of the habitats to see where the animals hang out when out of visitors' view. Flash wasn't working too well back there, so these pics are blurry, but I wanted to share how cool it was to be so close to the animals. The keeper called the seal over, and she jumped out of the water and slid over to us, even splashing water on us!

We stood mere feet from a polar bear, and inches from a grizzly bear! We were definitely warned not to lean near the bars in this case!

In the tropical "Islands" exhibit (where I got spat on by the orangutan, you'll recall), we saw the tigers get their lunch, jumping up and down for pieces of meat, and Mom and Matt even got some tiger drool on them from passing under a metal bridge a tiger was crossing.

We were pretty tired by the end of our tour, but dropped in on the giraffes, lions, and elephants before going. We stopped briefly by the camels, but given our track record with spit that day...

What a fun day. Check out how much Kate's grown since the last time we put her on this bronze elephant in July 2009!

Sibling Adjustment

This is the first of several "hmm... what's two kids gonna be like?" questions I want to toss out there.

How did your first child adjust to the birth of your second?

At first, I wasn't sure how much of this "baby" stuff Kate understood, beyond knowing the baby was in my belly and (according to her) also in her belly, since whatever Mommy does, she wants to do too.

Lately, I think she's starting to "get it" more and be appropriately concerned. She's kind of tired of hearing about it, and sometimes says "no baby!" when I'm talking about it with someone else. The I'm a Big Sister book she used to enjoy, she hasn't wanted to read lately. With the big changes lately of new house and new school, she's been kind of clingy lately, and I wonder how she'll adjust when another little person is getting a lot of my attention.

She's a pretty adaptable kid, and I imagine she'll be a loving big sister (though a very bossy one) once she gets used to it, but I don't want her to be traumatized in the short term!

So what are your tips for easing adjustment for the older child when baby comes on board? If you don't have firsthand experience with this, what did your mama always tell you about when you or your siblings were born?