Sunny Days

Ben left us for a night at the beach with some friends so we spent the day at my parents house. They were also kind enough to take Ava for the night so Ian and I held down the fort. The weather was so beautiful and we spent much of the afternoon outside enjoying the day. Which gave me the perfect opportunity to do a little photo shoot. Here are a few of my favorites.

Hsieh Family Update

Things have been pretty quiet on the homefront. No special field trips. No milestones conquered. The new camera has collected some dust on the end table. But the wheels are still turning and there are a few happenings to report. I guess we'll start with the youngest.

Ian must have read a recent blog post about doing no wrong and decided to test the theory with some early morning wake up calls and new levels of clinginess. There were a few days last week when we weren't on speaking terms. I've decided to stop being passive aggressive and try direct confrontation and sarcasm. Neither has been effective. On a positive note, he seems to have perfected his grunt. He can now use his skill to get one of us to read him a book, get him a bottle, or take him to the window so he can point at the squirrels that rummage through our yard.

Ava is obsessing over numbers so I made her a number line across the dining room and it seems to be her new favorite thing. She can now count to 100, with the exception of 23 (because 22 sounds like tutu and it always throws her off). Her favorite game is to have me cover a number with paper and have her guess what it is. It's fun until the 20th time when I have to make suggestions of other things to do. We also suspect that she has her first crush. His name is Asher and he's the pastor's son. What can I say? She aims high. She says he would make a very good prince one day. I like her thinking.

Besides the daily challenges of counting to 100 and navigating the fragile emotional waters of a one year old, I've also just discovered that I have athlete's foot. Apparently I've been spending too much time rubbing my feet around the locker room after football practice. I mean could our family have any more embarrassing ailments this year? And to make things worse I had an allergic reaction to the anti-itch medicine and my face has puffed up like a balloon and turned bright red. An allergic reaction to allergy medicine? I honestly thought the doctor was going to laugh when I was talking to her today. I'm pretty sure I need a vacation.

Ben is currently in the first stage of grief over not being able to get a satellite dish installed on our house. After eight years of marriage I finally agreed to let him get cable, and the trees around our house are too tall to get a signal. I am trying to pretend to be sympathetic. Luckily my face is too swollen to smile so I think it might be working.

This is not what I signed up for...

Ava(from the bathroom): MOMMY!!

Me(balancing Ian on one hip in the kitchen trying to make oatmeal and slice oranges one handed, because somebody refuses to be put down after whining for breakfast and then refusing to eat.):What is it?

Ava: THE WHITE TOWELS ARE DIRTY!

Me: Why?

Ava: BECAUSE I WIPED MY FACE AND HANDS ALL OVER THEM AFTER I ATE A CANDY CANE YESTERDAY!

Me(still balancing Ian as he rubs his eyes and tries to throw himself onto the floor, only to scream that I pick him up again, probably because he woke up six times last night crying, just long enough to wake me up and then go back to sleep): Ok, I'll wash them later.

Ava(walking back into the kitchen shaking her head): Mommy, you really should take better care of your things.

And today's photo winner is...

MilkNCookies

taken by Ben

If I were an octopus

I was lucky enough to have Kirstin with me last week before she had to head back to school. Oh how I wish she lived with us full time. It is just so nice to have an extra pair of arms and legs around the house. She would entertain the kids while I made dinner and every outing was a million times easier. Even just having her grab the diaper bag in the car, so I don't have to throw it and hope it lands at the right angle so everything won't tip out, made my day happier. I could run errands by myself at a moment's notice and Ben and I even managed to escape one night after putting Ian down. If only there could be two of me. I think I would be a better wife and mama. Isn't there a movie about that? I'm guessing it didn't turn out well.

Anyway, here's a few of my favorite shots from the children's museum:

"Don't eat the tire chips Ian."

"Ian, Mommy said not to eat the tire chips."

"Uh, Mom. I'm confused. Why did you put me in a giant pit full of bite sized tire chips again?"

"Finally, something I can figure out."

This is the giant lite-brite. I really wished I could sit there by myself and pretend I was 8 and making a flower in my bedroom.

Ava especially loved the pet hospital. It was awesome. On a side note, I don't think children's museums existed when I was a kid. Maybe if they did I wouldn't have had to spend so much time alone in my room with a lite-brite.

Heading home with two happy campers!(ok, they were actually crabby and exhausted but we bribed them with french fries apples all the way home.)

Part of your world....

Her passion for all things Disney Princess is unwaivering. I do think her vibrato is improving.

Winter Wonderland

We took advantage of Ben's last day off and the first dry day in awhile and headed over to our favorite hiking spot last Sunday. The landscape was so beautiful and Ava loved seeing how it had changed over the last few months. Poor Ian just had to deal with being outside with a cold. He seemed happily distracted and even grunted his approval a few times.

It had rained so much and then got really cold so the pathway had all these cool ice formations on them. And a few places had little ponds that had frozen over. Ava is completely in her element outside in the woods. She loves the exploring and the adventure and you can see this confidence in her face. The only hard part is leaving.

Baby turns one and goes to the doctor

Seriously mom, stop taking naked pictures of me

Poor unsuspecting Ian had to visit the doctor this week. Not only is he battling a terrible cold and flaming diaper rash but now he has four sore spots on his legs to contend with. I felt so bad I almost went in his room when he started crying in the middle of the night. And I never...never do that. Luckily it only lasted about 5 seconds or he would have broken my will.

Anyway, like always, his stats are what I expected.

90th percentile head size

90th percentile length

40th percentile weight

This boy is long and skinny and no wonder he can't walk. How in the world is he supposed to balance a bowling ball on his shoulders and make his legs work at the same time? I do intend to get some video up of his new spiderman crawl. I really think he has pioneered a few new methods. The doctor doesn't seem at all concerned about his lack of interest in walking or his desire to point and grunt instead of use actual words. And neither am I. He can do no wrong in my book. Except poop in the tub...that's just gross.

He is SO different from his big sister at this age.

She was a rolly polly, peek-a-boo'ing, so-bigging, animal sound making, talking, walking stinker.

Don't believe me?

I have proof.

Stinker

Guess who decided to redecorate the apartment with feminine products?

Can we get you anymore cheese puffs princess Ava?

This feels like a lifetime ago.

Tonight she told me that I should pray to God if I don't want her to grow anymore. I think I might be causing some damage. But that's technically my job right? She is a lovely girl...still a stinker but lovely.

Sorry Ian, this post was supposed to be about you. You are my baby. My sweet sweet boy and I'll give you a complex too. I promise.

surprises

Mama got a new toy for Christmas. It was a gift from my sweet husband. Have I ever mentioned that he is a fabulous gift giver? I mean really, really good. Once when he was in the fifth grade he broke up with his girlfriend because he didn't think the portable radio he got her was a good enough present. I love that story. He's so cute.

Sidebar:

When I was a junior in college I took my first trip outside of the small world I had lived in and went to England to read books and roam the Bronte's moors. While I was there I decided to go to Paris and see the 3 tenors perform in front of the Eiffel Tower with 10,000 other people. It was the most amazing experience I had up until that point. I decided to take a boy named Scott with me as my chaperone. He was fun but he was not my love. Six months after I returned home I received a Christmas present from Ben. He had found a cardboard display of the concert and had it framed for me. It meant everything to me since I knew he was devastated that he wasn't the one to share the most amazing experience I had had up until that point. But he did it because he knew I would love it.

Sidebar over:

My gift this year was a new camera. It is a beautiful fancy camera. I now use words like aperture and bokeh. Not really. But you will be seeing a lot more of this:What? You don't think leaves are blog worthy? Oh let me assure you. This is just the start.

Somehow the camera managed to get into Ben's hands and he got a shot of me breaking the cardinal rule of marriage.

Don't yell at your husband if you haven't had sex in the last 24 hours. I'm thinking of writing a book.

Don't shout until you put out:

(Rebekah Hsieh's guide to a spiritually fufilling marriage)

It's a work in progress.

I had good reason for yelling. I decided to throw a party for 17 people and forgot to mention it to Ben. I mean what else are you going to do when your mom gives you a 16 pound turkey and tells you to cook it? It's not like the two of us could eat that much turkey.

And just look at how much fun we had.

Jim chillin out

This is Amy and Patrick. He's holding her leg. Hee Hee... That makes me happy. Is that weird? She's just so wonderful and she deserves to have someone hold her leg at a party.

This is baby Derek. Oh wait. I woke up one morning and he turned 13 and started snowboarding on Mt. Hood.

These are lovely people from Canada

These are my girls. I know. They are stunning.

Ok this one's actually staged. Ahh...good memories.

Thanks Ben for the present!

Christmas is...

Wrapping

Shopping

Snow

Eating

Constructing

Celebrating

Playing

Traditions

Family

New Birth