My sister

Today is my sister Lucy's 22nd birthday! Happy birthday, Luce! Here are some of my favorite memories and thoughts about Lucy Clark McCann (with a contribution by Greg below)...

• I remember playing with Greg one day and Mama stopping us, saying she had something important to tell us. She stood in the doorway to the living room and said that we were going to have a new baby. I vaguely remember thinking, "Uh, OK. You made us stop playing for that?" (I'm sure my excitement grew when Lucy actually arrived.)
• I don't remember too much about Lucy's baby years (except what I'm reminded of by watching home videos), but Mama tells me that she would let me "play" with infant Lucy in my room by myself. I was 6. I think I mostly just talked to her and showed her things while she was on the floor.
• Lucy and I shared a room when we lived in Lake Forest (from when she was 2 to 6 and when I was 8 to 12). These were some extremely cute years for Lucy. I remember her dressing up a lot and speaking to anyone and everyone who would listen. Anyway, sharing a room was fun.
• One of little Lucy's favorite things to do was dress up in one of my old tap dance costumes and dance (move for move) to the home video of my dance recital. Mama says she would rewind the video--sometimes to well before the dance recital part--and Lucy would stand completely still in the first pose of the dance (one hand on hip, one hand in the air), waiting for it to come on.
• Lucy began horseback riding when we lived in Massachusetts (I think she was about... 9 or 10?). I remember being proud of her for doing her own thing and getting better and better at it. She continued riding after we moved to CA, and I would often pick her up at the barn in San Juan after she worked and rode.
• During the summer when I was about 17 and Lucy was 11, she and I would go to Lake Mission Viejo together. We'd swim around and "lay out" and just have a nice time. I never felt like I was doing a favor or babysitting or something; I was just hanging out with my sis.
• Apparently, Lucy's voice and my voice are very similar, especially on the phone. When Jon and I were dating and he called our house, he very often mistakenly said, "Hey babe" to Lucy if she answered. I think it got to the point where she would respond, "Hey babe" back to him. I realized how extremely similar our voices are when I heard a lengthy recording of myself talking (back when I recorded Nate's IEP meeting with the school). It was eerie--I couldn't believe not only how similar our actual voices are, but also how our inflections and word pronunciations are the same too.
• A phrase that describes Lucy well is that she always just does her own thing. She doesn't care much for trends or what everyone else is doing. When it comes to clothing, if she likes it, she wears it (although that penchant for jackets must be costly).
• Some other great Lucy qualities: she is very "go with the flow," she can be silly, she is smart, she is a hard worker, and she has strong values.
• I'm so excited about the woman of God Lucy has become. There is a reason we chose to name our daughter Lucy, and it wasn't just because we liked the sound of the name!

Here are Greg's thoughts (get a tissue ready):

When I think about Lucy, my favorite thing to think about is what kind of a person she has turned out to be. When our family lived in California, as Lucy wrote for my birthday, Lucy was known as little McCann. She was my little sister. Since we moved to Virginia and Lucy went to high school here, Lucy naturally knows more people and families in town than I do. Our roles completely reversed--I became Lucy's older brother. We have been here close to 6 years and still to this day I get introduced or meet someone and they know me through Lucy. I am always so proud to be known as her older brother. Lucy has grown up to be the sweetest, kindest, and outright most amazing woman I have ever known. When Lucy tells you something, you know she means every word from the bottom of her heart. Every time I think about Lucy, I smile because I still think of her as "Little Lucy," but in reality she has completely grown up into an amazing person. Lucy is everything anybody would want out of a friend, sister, daughter, and for some lucky guy, a wife! I love you Lucy! I can't wait to see you in a week! Happy Birthday!!!

Keeping busy

I've been sewing some more, and Ricci inspired me to start on some craft-y Christmas gifts. I ordered this cute Robert Kaufman fabric (it's brown corduroy) to make a wintery dress for Lucy... We'll see how that goes! I also ordered some fun boy fabric to try to make a skirt for the bassinet I have.

I've finally created a list of all the things I should do before this baby arrives, including freezing a few meals, making that bassinet skirt, getting out all the littlest baby/boy clothes, and finding a small dresser to go in Lucy's closet (I've already found a few good options on Craigslist).

OK, I'm off to do some more nap-time sewing!

Lucy today

Smart son

I figure it's OK to brag on my own blog, right? Here is Nate reading. This doesn't even do justice to the amazing things he can do already with letters and words.

More sewing

I realize all the clothing items I've made recently are very summery, including this project. I'm easing into this clothing-making thing by doing beginner stuff--no sleeves! I'm hoping to do a cooler-weather dress with sleeves soon, once I can find a cute jersey/cotton stretch knit.

Anyway, here is my first piece of clothing made using a pattern. It's a reversible pinafore, and I love how it turned out. It should fit Lucy in the spring/summer as a top, especially since it has two buttons on each shoulder for adjustability. I love the fabrics!

A fun day

We took the kids out for a fun-filled day yesterday, including an open house at the fire station, lunch at In-n-Out, and then the pumpkin patch. The fire station was not planned, but we saw the signs when we drove by to the bank, so we stopped there. Nate got to meet "fireman Mark," who showed him the fire truck and around the station. He got to sit in the truck and hold the captain's hat. We read the words on the hat--"Captain" and "O'Hare." Later, when we got in the car, we were talking about all the things we had seen. Nate loved that he had gotten to sit in a fire truck, and we also talked about the hat. Jon asked Nate what the hat said on it. Nate thought for a minute and said, "Ummmm.... Old Head!"



(The shirt he is wearing was a coincidence!)

Next we went to In-n-Out, always a highlight for our family and especially for Nate. Lucy now eats an entire cheeseburger on her own--with everything on it. She's a piglet for sure.

Last we headed over to the pumpkin patch at the mall. I didn't get too many wonderful pictures (the first one is the only picture of both Nate and Lucy together), but I did catch some funny shots, including Nate before the train ride started (all smiles), Nate after it started (not a happy camper), and Nate after he decided he was OK. :)

Bath fun

Artwork and teeth

Here is some of Nate's work from September and October:







And some fun pictures of Lucy (you can really see all of her new teeth in some of them):

Note home from Nate's teacher yesterday:

"Nate is such a joy! Today he was teaching all the children the months of the year... Miss Ann and I said, 'Maybe we aren't needed--we have Nate to teach.' :) It was adorable."

Friday pictures and video

Nate is in Cubbies this year (the 3- and 4-year-old class in AWANA). That is a whole separate post--he is doing great--but I wanted to post pictures of him in his vest, which he is so proud of. :)




Lucy has been doing a hilarious scrunched-up face when you ask her to smile:

Pregnancy cravings and baby names

Eating a snack right now, I just realized that I've had some food preferences this pregnancy. I guess you could call them cravings, but they are foods I do like anyway. The craving this pregnancy (besides citrus in the first trimester and Del Taco all the time, which has occurred all three of my pregnancies) has been balsamic vinegar. My snack right now is a diced tomato and half an avocado in a bowl drenched in balsamic vinegar. The other day, I made my mom's cucumber salad (just cucumbers, a little bit of sour cream, pepper, and balsamic) and devoured a big bowl of it. I've been doing carrots, celery, and cherry tomatoes in a bowl with bv too. I guess it's not unhealthy, so that's good. Yum!

As for the name of this baby, Jon and I have thrown around a few ideas but haven't settled on anything yet. We might head to the hospital with a short list and decide there! :)

Look how sweet

Caught the kids being sweet last night:

Easy dinner: orange mango chicken

I made this recipe last night. It was very easy and used all ingredients I always have on hand (except the mango, which is easy enough to get).

INGREDIENTS
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1/8 teaspoon ground thyme
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 lemon, juiced
1 cup orange juice
1 mango - peeled, seeded and sliced
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Heat the olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Place chicken breast halves in the skillet, and cook 5 to 10 minutes on each side, until no longer pink and juices run clear. Season both sides with thyme, salt, and pepper. Remove from heat, and set aside.

Heat the lemon juice in the skillet over medium heat, and scrape up browned bits. Mix in orange juice, mango, ginger, and cinnamon. Over high heat, cook and continuously stir 4 to 5 minutes, until thickened. Spoon over the cooked chicken breast halves (and rice) to serve.

P.S. This recipe is GFCFSF!

Dollhouse Frock Giveaway

Dollhouse Frock GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

Because Greg asked...

...here I am yesterday at 28+ weeks (7 months). Feeling good and big!

Getting more sleep

I remember the story of Mama and Daddy getting a digital clock for Greg when he was a boy so that he would stop coming out of his room so early in the morning. They told him, "You may come out when the first number is 7." In Greg's effort to obey, things didn't go quite like my parents had expected. He would come into their room at 6:27, or 5:57, or 6:17, etc. This ended up being one of my mom's first indications that Greg might be left-handed. (Years later, when he learned to write, he wrote in mirror image--backward letters and from right to left--crazy!)

A couple of weeks ago, we got a small digital clock for Nate's room. We told him he should stay in his room in the mornings until 6-zero-zero. (Back story: Nate gets up capital-E Early. Most of it is from the various supplements he is on, many of which indicate hyperactivity and/or change in sleep patterns as a side effect. He had made a habit of coming into our room in the mornings some time between 4:30 and 5:30, sometimes going back to sleep and sometimes not.) The first few nights, we reminded him about the 6:00 rule, but we didn't do a great job of enforcing it (how much willpower do YOU have in the middle of the night?), but we kept reminding him about the new rule. On about night 3, it happened. I heard Nate open his door at about 6:02. He came down to our room and said, "Daddy, I stayed in my room until six zero zero!" We made a big deal about it for him, and he was so proud. Since then, he has done a decent job of giving us a bit more sleep! This morning, when I came upstairs, he was sitting in his room in the recliner, with the light on, reading the pages in his children's picture Bible. So cute!

What will they come up with next?

Here are a couple of new baby inventions I'm eyeing for this next time around.

• Zip-top crib sheets. It is a big pain trying to get a crib sheet off and a new one on, especially in the middle of the night. (I often have to remove the entire crib bumper and take out the mattress and put it on the floor.) These sheets are two pieces: a base (which doesn't usually get dirty), and a top that zip together. When the sheet needs to be changed, just zip off the top and zip on a new top.
• A swaddling blanket. If Baby likes to be swaddled as much as Nate did, I will want one of these. (Lucy, on the other hand, hated swaddling.) The blankets made specifically for swaddling seem nice because they are big and have pockets so baby can't kick them off or wriggle his/her arms out. If you go to the site, scroll down and watch the video of the precious baby getting swaddled. (Oh--I'm also thinking of just making some of these. The picture here pretty much gives away how I could make one version.)

You'll notice that the things I like take up little to no space... I don't want to buy any new toys, big play mats, etc.--no space suckers!

Update

We had a full weekend here, including a baby shower (for someone else--Ricci, she loved the airplane burp cloths!), a trip to the District to run in a fountain, a full church day on Sunday. The weekend began on a sad note, though: Jon's Uncle Paul (his dad's younger brother) passed away (from very aggressive cancer) last week, and the funeral was Friday. We will miss him!

I had my 28-week appointment today; everything looks good!

Here's Lucy last week doing a new funny face she created:


And Nate saying the pledge of allegiance, which he learned months ago (but can now pronounce almost everything correctly):

...And beautiful

Here are some cute Nate sayings from the past few days:

• Yesterday, I asked if he knew the name of his OT teacher. He said, "Yes. Miss Christy." (That was correct.) I asked if she was nice, and he replied, "Yes, she is nice... And beautiful."
• On Sunday, he needed a tissue, and I told him to get one. He wanted me to get it. We went back and forth for a minute, and I said, "Nate, I am not your servant." While he was walking to get the tissue, he said, "You're not? That makes me so sad."
• He is finally starting to pronounce his Ls correctly (at least when he's thinking about it), even for Lucy's name.
• The other night at the Great Park, he had fun running back and forth on a long painted line with lights. He would run by and say, "Look at me go!"

Payback

When I was about 10, Greg was 8, and Lucy was 4, we took a family vacation. On the way home, Mama and Daddy surprised us with a trip to Magic Mountain. This made them the coolest parents who ever lived. Mama took Lucy to the children's area; Daddy talked up the rollercoasters to Greg and me, and we enthusiastically asked to go on one. The three of us got in line for Viper, where we waited... and waited... for well over an hour. The closer we got to the front of the line, the bigger that coaster looked. At the last minute, Greg and I chickened out. We wouldn't go on it. This was frustrating to Daddy, I'm sure, but maybe he thought he had started too big (Viper is quite a big coaster and also goes upside down). So we went next to the coaster with the cars that hang down from the track instead of riding on top of it; this one didn't go upside down. We waited for a long time in this line. And then we chickened out again. Daddy was M-A-D mad. Even at the time I realized he was mad, and I felt bad about that--but not bad enough to go on the ride. I actually remember seeing my dad look longingly at Viper as we left the park, him having not ridden anything.

Fast forward 17 years to last night. Jon and I took Nate to ride the big balloon at the Great Park in Irvine. He points that thing out every time we see it from the freeway. His eyes grew big when we told him that's where we were going. (Side note: we would have taken Lucy, too, but it was nearing her bed time, grampy was already at our house, and she is teething something fierce, so she stayed home to be put to bed.) We arrived at 6:30 and put our names in, not realizing there would even be a wait. We made the best of the wait, running on the grassy area and exploring a little bit. When it grew dark, Nate had fun running along the flashing red lights that were in a line on the ground. Finally, at 8:30, our buzzer buzzed, and we went to the next place to stand in line, right next to the balloon. We just had to wait for a couple of rounds of people to ride in front of us (4-5 minutes each ride), and then it was our turn. Nate was excited... until we were within 15 feet of getting on. Then he decided it just wasn't for him. Ah yes, the ride we had just waited 2 hours to go on? Apparently, it sounded fun for those 2 hours, but not now. So I went on the balloon by myself while Jon waited with Nate on the ground. (It's a good thing we didn't force him to go, because the lift-off was a bit jerky. I didn't mind it, but in his little mind it would have confirmed his fears, I'm sure.) And then we went home.

Pictures during the wait--having lots of fun:




Thoughts as we are walking to get on the ride: concern


And then worry. Notice the clenched fist:


And then making a run for it: