Friday, January 27, 2012

Winter Finally Hit

And it sure hit hard!! 

Last week we got enough snow to cripple the Seattle area. (We just don't get enough of it on a regular basis so the city is not equipped with snow plows and good preventative measures. Plus, there are so many huge hills in the area that driving around can be pretty treacherous. Call us wimps if you want, but it is what it is). I think we had about 3-4 inches here in Auburn between Sunday and Wednesday morning.

Enjoying the snow on Sunday after church.
Let's go for a walk! (Eric assured me you wouldn't be
able to tell I buttoned her coat wrong....not true!)
So pretty!
Our accumulation

Wednesday was a snow day for the City of Tukwila, but Eric had to go in because no one else would/could and his boss doesn't actually know how to do any IT stuff. We were really looking forward to a snow day so we could play with Brooklynn. It turns out that B is not so much a fan of playing in the snow, but she loves the idea of going out in it and playing or just watching it out the window. We tried to go for a walk while it was snowing on Sunday and it was just a bunch of tears and she refused to walk. I bundled her up on Wednesday and she would only stand on her own in our neighbors tire tracks. But she was super excited when I told her we were going out and she loved being in her snow suit so much that she wouldn't let me take it off for a good 10 minutes after going inside. 
Don't let this face fool you....
....it spent most the time outside like this!
Done "playing" but still in our snowsuit!

The real trouble came late Wednesday night/Thursday morning. We had some freezing rain that completely covered our trees and bushes in like 1/2-1 inch of ice. Therwere tons of branches and trees that came down, which resulted in hundreds of thousands of people losing their power. We were the lucky recipients of losing power at 5:45 Thursday morning! We had no idea when we would be getting our power up so we packed ourselves up and headed to my parents house because they never lose power! We called everyday at least once to get an update on when our power would come back we were always told that they had no estimate of when they would be able to fix our outage. So we "moved" in with my parents and stayed with them from Thursday mid-morning until Monday evening. We found out on Monday that we had power and a neighbor informed us that our power returned Friday night! While we were happy to find out our power was on it was frustrating to be told for 3 days that we did not have power and they had no idea when it would be fixed! Regardless of the frustration of being misinformed we are very blessed to have my parents so close and that they are willing and able to take us in and keep us warm and fed. We are especially grateful that we had a place to go at this time because Brooklynn ended up getting sick and needing multiple baths that we would not have been able to give her with our power out!  Despite being sick, she had a great time spending a long weekend with Nana and Papa.


Some of the results of the icestorm in our neighborhood:
This tree is right outside our door and was
hanging so low I hit my head a few times!
a tree in our backyard
our privacy bushes almost completely covering Brooklynn's slide/climber
(they have mostly gone back upright...only a few branches were too weak to go back up)
ice we took off a branch
Some broken trees down our street:



Hanging out at the refugee center:


We saw a lot of this face over the weekend. Poor sick baby.
We played some Wii bowling and Brooklynn thought
we were playing Kinect and tried to play along.


Tuesday, January 24, 2012

19 months

I started this post at the beginning of the month, when Brooklynn turned 19 months....now she is almost 20 months! Oops!
There really isn't anything special about Brooklynn's monthly milestones anymore, but it's just nice to have a reason to update. We just had a well-child appointment and our little peanut is now: 33 inches tall (80th percentile) and 23 lbs 2 oz (30th percentile). It's funny because sometimes I look at her and am so amazed at how big she is and old she is starting to look and act, and other times I look at her and think that she is so tiny!

Brooklynn continues to run around ALL DAY long. Her energy is boundless. Many times as she is running around like a child hopped up on caffeine (which she is not) I get asked, "Is she like this all day long?" The answer is YES! She continues to have no fear (except for loud noises) and is constantly trying new death defying feats.

She has a new found love for singing "If you're happy and you know it," "The itsy bitsy spider," and "Old Mac Donald." We usually bust them out in the car in order to keep her happy. The only down side...once we start she doesn't want us to stop!

We are struggling with the concept of sharing right now. I know that it happens to everyone, which is why I am not too worried. But it still isn't very fun to deal with, especially when I have 1-2 other children in the house that would also like to play with toys. A few nights last week she would cry out "mine, mine, mine" in her sleep. Maybe she was dreaming about being back at her P-Pa's house with 3 of her cousins and having to share all of her toys there!

She continues to surprise us with new words randomly. The other day we were in the bathroom and she pointed to the clock and said "clock." I don't even remember talking to her about clocks or ever pointing one out to her, so I'm not sure where it came from! She is getting better at repeating words that we say, but normally not when we are actually trying to get her to say them! Such a stubborn girl has to do things on her own terms! The one word that she struggles with (and that I know she used to say and still knows how to say) is "more." For some reason she says "Neh." We don't know where or why this has come about. She will occasionally say "more" if we fully and exaggeratedly enunciate it for her, but she's been in a stubborn mood lately and wont even do that.

We are still slowly working on potty training. She is getting good at telling us when she is poopy or wet and on occasion will tell us before she actually poops. She will sit on the potty now, but we still can't get her to do anything while she is there. We'll get there though. Hopefully we can have her trained before the baby comes the end of June, it would be so nice not to have 2 kiddos in diapers!

 Brooklynn is a great helper and loves to bring me things and help me in the kitchen. She always wants to be up on the kitchen counter right in the mix of things. My mom is really good with her in the kitchen and always takes the time to let Brooklynn pour or stir or play in bubbles while she does the dishes. Something I don't always take the time to do.




(Notice a trend in the last few pictures? Brooklynn sure loves to be naked!!)

Brooklynn is obsessed with bags/purses. If she has a bag to carry around she is a happy girl. She has an adorable church bag that my mom made for her and she always insists on carrying it herself. Sometimes she even insists on taking it when we go grocery shopping or running other errands. It is so cute to watch her carry a bag around. She also discovered the stickers in my crafting drawers and has been obsessed with them. She is constantly asking to have stickers and she loves to put them on her face and ours, as well as on pieces of paper (and sometimes the floor and the couch).

Brooklynn has also become obsessed with Elmo and constantly is asking for him. She also loves Big Bird, which surprised me because we haven't seen too much of him on the newer episodes of Sesame Street. Her other favorite show to watch is Super Why. She is always asking for WhyWhy.

Brooklynn has almost perfected her skill of dressing herself. She is super amazing at putting on her own shirt (and taking it off as well) and can now pull her own pants up. The only hitch with the pants is that she hasn't quite figured out that she has to pull her pants up in the back as well, so she usually has a cute little diaper bum hanging out of her pants. Her shirt isn't always on the right way, but we'll work on that! She loves to take off and put on her socks too. She hasn't quite mastered her shoes, but she's trying.

We have entered a bad sleeping phase. We went through a few weeks where she would wake up at 2:00 in the morning and when we would get her back to sleep she would refuse to go back in her bed. We are not sure how she does it, but even sound asleep she knows we are trying to put her back in bed and she will cling on for dear life and cry. Which means she was spending about half the night in our bed just so that we could get some sleep ourselves. We finally got it figured out that if she is in bed by 7:30 she will sleep through the night. So Brooklynn now has a new bedtime. We've still had a few problems with her sometimes waking up at 5:00 or so due to her not feeling well, but we are thankfully back to sleeping through the night! Even though it was frustrating and tiring there was still a silver lining in the situation (which I think is true for most hard/challenging parenting situations): the early morning hours when I am hoping she will fall back to sleep in bed with us so that I can get another 30-60 minutes of sleep is when she gives the best love! I get so many sweet little kisses all over my face and hugs that just make me melt!

Brooklynn LOVES cream of wheat. That little girl almost can't get enough hot cereal! She also has a new found love for scrambled eggs. She is a really good breakfast eater and will gobble up her whole plate. But she is a little hit and miss with lunch and dinner. Give her a snack though and she is in heaven! She loves chips, fruit snacks, crackers, and of course candy. Poor little girl didn't stand a chance! At least she gets one good meal in her. (And I promise we don't just let her eat junk food all day. We hardly ever have chips and when we do they normally are tortilla chips and we don't keep candy in the house. Thankfully the Holidays and all the goodies that come with them are over!)


We definitely have our moments, but all in all I couldn't ask for a better little girl. She is going to be a great big sister!

Sunday, January 8, 2012

2nd Trimester!!!

I am so excited to be out of the first trimester! We are almost 15 weeks now, so it's been a few weeks. I think my favorite part of pregnancy is leaving the first trimester! It's amazing how much better I feel and how much more I am able to accomplish now. I'm sure Eric is enjoying having real meals at dinner!

It is so much nicer being pregnant and not working full time! Yes, I have a toddler to take care of and a house to keep in order and meals to prepare, but I am able to take a nap or not do much of anything at all if I'm not feeling up to it. With Brooklynn I was exhausted all the time. I was going to bed like at 8:00-8:30 because I was so tired from working. Then because I was going to bed so early I was waking up at like 4:00-4:30 every morning. Waking up so early made me super tired at work, with no chance whatsoever of taking a nap. It was a vicious cycle. With this baby I am still tired throughout the day and I am usually ready to head to bed earlier than normal, but I have a few nights a week where I stay up to my normal 10:00 or so.

I remember being in the hospital with Brooklynn and when the contractions started to get uncomfortable the nurse suggested I get in the whirlpool tub. Being in that hot water just made me sick, weird right? I don't think I lasted even 10 minutes in that tub. I haven't taken any baths, but during the first trimester my shower would make me sick if it was too hot. I had quite a few showers that ended with a visit to the porcelain bowl. Not fun. I am so glad that I have not experienced that in the last few weeks!

So far I don't really have any cravings, and I don't really remember having cravings with Brooklynn, and not too much makes me sick. I have a hard time cooking with garlic (which happened which happened with Brooklynn too) because I just can't handle the smell. I love having fresh garlic in my food so I still use it, I just try to get incorporated into the food as quickly as possible!
Probably one of the strangest, and most tragic, aversions I have is to my chapstick. I have used Natural Ice for years and I absolutely love it. Eric says that I am addicted. But when I put it on it makes me sick! I think it's the mentholatum. So I have converted back to the traditional Perkins Chapstick Brand. Seriously, if you don't have at least 3 tubes of Chapstick open at one time (in various places of convenience) then you are not a Perkins! Hopefully I can return to my Natural Ice once this baby makes it's arrival.

We are so excited to find out what this baby is next month!! 4 weeks can just not go fast enough!

sorry, no baby bump pics yet b/c I just look fat and not so much pregnant, and I am just not ready!

Friday, January 6, 2012

Hello 2012!!

It's hard to believe that another year has gone by! They just seem to go faster and faster the older I get. Does anybody else feel that way?

We have had a great year here in Compton Land. We didn't really do anything extraordinary, but we delighted in the ordinary. We enjoyed all the time that we were able to spend with family for birthdays, vacations, stay-cations and holidays. It has been absolutely amazing watching Brooklynn grow and develop into the happy, confident spit-fire she is today. She definitely kept us on our toes this past year from the very beginning, I still can't believe that she started walking last January! We had tons of fun trying to keep up with her, something that I am sure will not be changing in the near future.

In keeping with our pace for 2011 we didn't do anything extraordinary for New Year's Eve. We stayed home, ordered a pizza, drank Cherry Dr. Pepper, gave Brooklynn a bath and watched Inception (which we had never seen before, but apparently bought on Black Friday). I didn't see the ball drop, but I did manage to stay up later than I thought I would (I think it was 11:00).

We are definitely looking forward to 2012 and all the changes and exciting times that it will bring. We are excited to finish up the purchase of our first home and finally have our own space. We will even get to attend and celebrate a sealing this Spring (Congrats Nicole and Sean!). But I think that we are most excited to welcome our second child this summer and even out the parent-child ratio. And of course we look forward to all the things that will just naturally come about as we progress through the year. Hopefully we can find a way to throw in a few family trips as well!

I definitely have some personal goals for 2012:
1. Healthy pregnancy
2. Keep pregnancy weight gain under control
3. Lose baby weight and get into shape, hopefully to my goal weight by the end of the year
3. Be better with my personal prayers
4. Read my scriptures daily
5. Have family home evening
6. Be better about keeping the house organized and clean
7. Play more with Brooklynn
Hopefully I can work hard to accomplish all of these goals and improve myself spiritually and as a wife and mother.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Christmas

**I started this almost a week ago, but blogger wouldn't upload my pictures and I just now got around to getting back to it. And I had so many fun pictures I thought I would try a collage**

I hope everyone had as great of a Christmas as we did!!
Our Christmas started early with the surprise arrival of Ali and Kyle on Thursday evening! We had no idea that they were coming and showed up to my parents house for dinner to find their car parked outside. It was great to have them home and to be able to spend time with them. We had so much that I never got around to taking a picture of just the two of them like I had planned.

Christmas Eve was our annual Doughnut making with my family. This year my parents changed it up and did an open house. It was really fun to have everyone come over and enjoy the fresh out of the fryer doughnuts and visit with them. My dad and I have traditionally been the fryer and the glazer (for the last 10 years or so), but shortly before everyone started arriving Dad burned himself pretty badly and once the crowd gathered Brooklynn was overwhelmed and needed Mommy so we swapped out with Eric and Kyle. They may be novices, but they did an amazing job and kept up with the demand for doughnuts!
After resting from our demanding morning of doughnut production we went bowling with some family friends and then joined them for soup and a Christmas program.

We stayed at my parents house that night and Brooklynn barely slept, so it made for a tired and crabby Mommy, Daddy and Babers. Fortunately Brooklynn napped through most of sacrament meeting, so by the time we got home to open presents she was moderately happy. Brooklynn absolutely loved opening presents! To her the big deal was ripping the paper off and she would usually just walk away from the actual present and we would have to call her attention to what she was getting! It was so fun to watch her open her presents (and try to steal other people's presents that she helped open).


Our final Christmas celebration was actually on New Years Day. We got together with the Compton clan for the Annual party and gift exchange.We ate tons of food and had fun visiting with family we don't see quite as often. Brooklynn got to play with all her cousins and managed to sneak tons of candy and sweets, it's pretty much all that she ate! She also got to open up some more presents from Eric's aunts and uncles. Definitely a fun way to end our Holiday season and start the new year!