The Tea

Every year, my mom hosts a spectacular Mother's Day Tea. This year, she really outdid herself. The theme was Cinderella and we had a "ball" to top all balls. All the little girls wore Cinderella dresses and all the adults wore fancy dresses, except my mom, who was the Fairy Grandmother. Don't worry, I included a picture of her so you could see her in all her glory. It was so wonderful and I love the tradition of spending this day with the women in my family.

Great Ruthie Quotes from the Past Week

I wish I could record and remember everything Ruthie says because almost all of it is awesome. But here's just a sampling from this week.

On the way to the store: 

"Ruthie, will you climb up into your carseat and work on your top buckle?"

"Umm, no thank you."

Well, I guess at least she used good manners. Let me rephrase that...

Then after we were leaving the store, she tells me, "We didn't eat the people!" Gosh, I didn't know we were ever in danger of eating them. 

We've been working with Ruthie on our names, just in case she's ever lost and needs to tell someone what her mommy or daddy's name is. So our conversation goes like this:

"Ruthie, what's Mama's name?"

"Esther."

"What's Daddy's name?"

"Ian. And Jonah's name is Jonah."

"That's right. And what's your name?"

"Nellie!" Every time. I'll even say, "Ruthie, what's your name?" And she'll always respond with a resounding shout, "Nellie!" I guess this girl really loves her middle name.

And one final story - well, maybe two more. A few Sundays ago in church, we picked Ruthie up from her class and asked her about her story. She told us that "Jesus fights people." Puzzled, we wondered what story this was (or what they were teaching these kids!) and then we saw her craft - Jesus clearing the temple. Well, I guess there was some truth in what she said. 

Last one. Ruthie likes to talk to herself and I love to listen in. Earlier this week I heard the following (we've also been talking a lot in our house about gender): "Jonah's a boy. Daddy's a boy. I a girl. Mama's...a princess." 

You heard the lady - I'm a princess. =) Can't wait to be treated as such. 

Next week is Spring Break! Ahh, the joys of being married to a teacher. 

I Wondered Why My Shower Had So Few Interruptions

Most days, our lives at home follow a pretty regular routine. We all get up, Jonah's nurses, we play, then we all have breakfast, then play a little more. Then Jonah goes down for a nap, Ruthie and I pick up a little, finishing the breakfast dishes and tidying the house.

Next, we typically do an exercise video. I say we because she really does do it with me, following along to the crunches and jumping jacks, always saying, "One more, Mama!" On the more complicated moves, she'll look over at me and say, "It's very hard." (I have to agree - some of the moves are tough!)

Anyway, after the DVD, I take a shower, so I can be ready to nurse Jonah and move on with the day when he gets up. Usually, I have a lot of visits from Ruthie during my shower, asking me when I'm getting out and if I have shampoo in my hair. On this particular day, though, I didn't have any visits. 

I quickly learned when I got out of the shower why what was...

 

More evidence here...

And still more...

Needless to say, spankings followed. She is a big fan of baby powder. And before you go blaming me for leaving it where she could reach it, I didn't. She went into our closet, dragged the stool that's in there into our room and stood on top of it to reach the powder on our dresser. Clever, yes. Naughty? YES. Even as I'm typing this she's looking over my shoulder saying, "I touched powder. Ruthie got a spank." Well, hopefully the lesson is still sinking in, because I'm about to go take another shower! 

This Boy Melts My Heart

Truly. Every day, in a hundred different ways. I love him so much. I can't believe what a perfect addition he's been to our family. We are all so crazy about him and he loves us each as well. He laughs and smiles whenever Ruthie comes near him; he grins and holds his hands out to me when I walk into the room; and he crawls as fast as he can over to Ian when he comes home from work. He is a lover, not a fighter, that's for sure.

He has just started signing "all through" at the end of meal time and it is amazing to watch. He is extremely ticklish, which we all love. He's super cheerful, pretty much all of the time, and he's a joy to watch eat - he shovels chicken and cheese in his mouth like there's a scarcity. 

He's also been making huge strides in his mobility. He's a super fast crawler and for the last three weeks he's been pulling himself up on anything that stands still long enough for him to crawl over to it. He's started doing a bit of cruising, holding onto things as he walks along. And a few times he's even transferred from one piece of furniture to the next. My guess is that he'll walk a little before a year, just like sister. 

We love our Jonah-man. Thank, God, for such a good gift! 

PNS

Do you know what that is? Yeah, I didn't either until last week. It stands for Pine Nut Syndrome. For the past 9 days, I've been experiencing it. Basically, they don't really know too much about it, except that some people, some of the time, get it, from some batches of pine nuts. I've eaten plenty of pine nuts before and had no problem. And Ian ate the same pine nuts as me on the fateful night that began the problem, and he's fine. The main symptom (at least in my case) is a bitter taste in the middle of my mouth when I eat or drink. That's exactly what I typed into Google when I first started noticing my issue, which was last Monday.

Google is amazing, isn't it? How long would I have wondered what the issue was, furiously scrubbing the middle of my mouth with my toothbrush (which, as I know now, only continues to aggravate the problem) if it weren't for Google? So here's what happened. On Monday morning, as I sipped my coffee, I kept getting a really bitter taste in my mouth. At first I thought it was drainage from my allergy nasal spray, so I kept sipping coffee. But each sip of coffee brought on a fresh wave. Then I noticed as I ate my eggs that while I could clearly taste the flavor of the eggs, there was also a persistent bitter flavor in the middle of my mouth. After breakfast, it faded completely, so I thought it was a fluke thing. Then it happened again with my lunch, which lead to the furious tongue scrubbing mentioned above. Finally, with the same thing happening at dinner, I sat down at my desk, to seek wisdom from the amazing Google. And sure enough, as soon as I typed "bitter taste in the middle of my mouth when I eat or drink" a dozen articles popped up on PNS. The first question - had I eaten pine nuts in the past 1-3 days? Yep. On the Saturday before, I had made homemade pesto with a batch of pine nuts I've been keeping in my fridge. And you know what? This was my second batch with these same pine nuts and I didn't experience this the first time. And Ian's been scott free both times. Crazy!

The article said that they don't really know why some people get it and some don't; and there is no guarantee I would even experience it next time I eat pine nuts, though I can promise you it's going to be a while (or maybe forever) until I try them again. They've analyzed the nuts that cause it side by side with nuts that don't and they can't see any discernible difference. Pretty much, it's a pine nut mystery.

With each day passing, the sensation has lessened slightly, so that today, I had almost no bitterness at all. Just a bit with my coffee (I only re-introduced coffee two days ago). I think tomorrow it might be totally better. One of the articles I read said that people's symptoms last between 1-4 weeks, so I'm glad I'm closer to the 1 end than the 4. And some people experience other symptoms as well, which I won't subject you to here. But be warned - PNS is out there, waiting to strike, and you could be next! If you're a geek like me and find things like this interesting, you can read one of the articles that was helpful for me: http://pinenutsyndrome.wordpress.com/pinenutsyndrome/

So, who wants the big bag of pine nuts I have in my freezer? =)

The Tree Offering This Morning

That's just from yesterday to this morning. The tree left us more this afternoon. Imagine how many avocados we'd have if we actually went out there and picked them! 

A Little of This, A Little of That

Life is good. I think and say that so many times each week. I know it may not always be that way, but today, it is. I'm thankful. I'm enjoying the kids so much and I'm loving where we live and the people we get to spend so much time with. Here's a little of what we've been up to...

Going to the Aquarium with cousins - last week we took Sammy and today we took Levi (sadly, no photo of today). Ruthie loved it, as did her cousins.

We started bathing the kids together and man, oh, man is it cute. Ruthie loves to help wash Jonah; he's not as big of a fan of that as she is. But he does love his bath and Daddy loves to giving them, especially now that he gets to do two at one time! 

We've been going to Disneyland a lot, enjoying the nice spring weather. This past Friday afternoon/night, we went with Mom, Dad, Mary, Mike and their kids. It was great. Ruthie, Clare and Abbie all have the same Cinderella shirt, given by Grandma (Hannah and Naomi have it too, but they don't currently have passes - boo!). Mary and I try to coordinate it so the girls wear them on the same trips and let me tell you, they get a lot of attention! Clare and Ruthie are particularly awesome together, following each other around and laughing at their own jokes. Such cute little besties. In this photo, they had laid down the Disneyland map to get a better look at it, while we were in line at Pirates of the Caribbean. Too cute!

Jonah is really starting to develop his personality, which is so fun. Here's Daddy and Jonah, goofing off!

This is one of my favorite stages - discovering the baby in the mirror. Jonah was quite taken with him today, kissing him, waving to him and then looking past him at me in the mirror. It was great! Love that guy.

Ruthie is so spoiled. How many kids get to go to Disneyland once week, let alone with both Grandma and Grandpa there to hold your hand and buy you treats? Good thing there are so many cousins or we would be in big trouble! 

So that's been our lives (or a small snapshot, at least) in the past few weeks. Hope your March has been lovely as well!