VA pics

We're having lots of fun! We miss Jon and can't wait for him to arrive tomorrow night.

The kids have done some baking with Mimi, piano playing with Grandpa, treasure hunts each day, and lots of snow outings!

24 hours

The kids and I are heading to Virginia tomorrow.... early tomorrow. Our flight is at 6:00 a.m. from LAX; we think we should leave the house around 3:30 a.m. I've been packing and pile-making and list-writing. I'll let you know if we all survive! :)

Overheard tonight

Lucy:

"Nate was crying because he doesn't like Santa Clocks. But I do. I like Santa Clocks."

Milk update

n my friend Suzanne's recommendation, I bought some hemp milk to give to Levi. After a couple of weeks, he is used to the taste and likes it! I ordered my own shelled hemp seeds today so I can start making the milk myself (way more cost effective), although we may have to invest in a new blender for that. (My blender was passed down to me... I think it was a wedding gift to my parents!)

On another Levi note, I took him to an Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor this week to have a spot on his neck looked at. (He was born with the spot--it's a raised white bump and not very noticeable, but it has gotten bigger.) The doctor said it's a benign cyst and should be removed for cosmetic reasons. I'm fine with getting it removed, but that does involve general anesthesia for 15 minutes or so. Anyone have experience or knowledge you want to share about anesthesia for one year olds?

Levi at one year

I let Levi's first birthday come and go without much of a post! So here is a post in honor of our littlest Varela.

There is a lot to say about Levi Paul. He is the cutest little thing. He loves crawling around at the park (including going up the steps to the slides)--and thankfully not eating sand and leaves like Nate used to do. ;) He also always makes a bee-line for the steps if we're downstairs in the house. He likes pat-a-cake and singing songs, and he even bounces and claps along when we have our "dance parties" in the kitchen. (He also sings the Beach Boys' "Barbara Ann" with me.) Another favorite activity of his is bath time. Just this past week, when he is getting cleaned up from dinner in his high chair, he starts saying, "Ba! Ba!" because he wants a bath. (He also says the same sound getting cleaned up in the morning after breakfast, but that's because he wants to go see Nate get on the bus.) He signs "More" and uses that one a lot, since he loves to eat. That little guy is an eating machine! I was just about to write out his favorite foods, but he pretty much eats everything I put in front of him (besides peas). He does love bananas best.

In addition to his extreme cuteness, Levi is a little stinker! He knows what "No" means but chooses to ignore it relentlessly. He loves the buttons on the printer, the computer keyboard, and the no-no kitchen cabinets. Getting his hand flicked doesn't phase him one bit, so we've already had to break out the paddle.

He really likes playing with Nate, especially because Nate is always gentle and a fun big brother. He loves his Daddy and siblings, but he loves Mama best. I think this is a nice break for Jon!--the other two children are ALL about Daddy, especially Lucy.

Oh, and the sleep. Levi now sleeps!!! He turned a corner around 10-11 months where crying it out actually worked (the other times I'd tried it, he would just cry and cry and cry and never stop). So now he sleeps from about 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. I'll take it!

I love you, my little LP!

Family pics

We had our pictures taken as part of a fundraiser for MOPS, and I used some of them for our Christmas cards (hoping to send those out in the next week). Here are some that didn't make the cut (click on each one to enlarge).

Cute Levi videos

This is our life

Before & After

Before, an out-of-date outfit:



After, a ruffled dress for church:



I've been getting ready for the MOPS boutique this Thursday. I feel like I'll be able to relax a little bit after it's over, and then maybe I'll get a few days to make some of the Christmas gifts I've been thinking about!

Thanksgiving 2009

hank you, God, for

• my wonderful husband, who works hard every day and then comes home to be an amazing dad.
• our children.
• our children's health and safety.
• providing for us beyond our need, often in miraculous ways (e.g., where did the bill for Levi's 10-day hospital stay go? We never received one and were told everything was paid).
• our family and friends.
• our church.

ucy is better! Phew! Yesterday was one of those back-and-forth days for me. One minute I'd think she was going to be fine, but the next I'd think we should take her in for IV fluids. I actually made the call to Jon to come home (instead of going to his basketball game) so one of us could take her in, but while he was on his way she ate a good portion of dinner and really perked up. I told Jon to go to his game and Lucy was fine. :) Today is nearly back to normal. Thank you to all who prayed.

Chubby Baby Car Seat Cover guest giveaway

I'd love to win the Chubby Baby Car Seat Cover. Levi will be switching soon into our Britax, which is nice but has seen prettier days!

Luce

Please say a prayer for Lucy today. It's the third day in a row she hasn't been able to keep anything down (anything at all). I'm taking her to the doctor this afternoon. Poor girl!



Update: the doctor gave Lucy a prescription for Zofran, an anti-nausea medication. Sounds like Lucy just has the stomach flu, but I think she just gets stomach-related illnesses really bad. She has been keeping liquids down since she took the medicine.

Little Levi

evi had his 12-month check-up last week; he weighed just under 18 pounds, the little guy! That places him below the chart percentile-wise. I've been thinking about making my own high-fat, nutritious drink for him to have in place of milk, since we don't give our kids milk. There isn't much out there resource-wise for this sort of thing. (And I'd rather not give Levi Pediasure, which is for older toddlers, contains milk protein, and is expensive.) I'll let you know how my research goes!

Making family fun

ast week, our speaker at MOPS spoke on infusing fun into the family. Her ideas really hit home with me. I loved that so many of her suggestions didn't cost money or even lots of effort; it was more about an attitude shift. I went home the day of her talk and used one of the ideas: a dinosaur hunt. (OK, I didn't use dinosaurs; I used toy cars.) When the kids were napping, I took 20-25 toy cars and hid them out on our front patio. After nap, the kids got to go on a car hunt! (Lucy didn't find it that fun, but she was still in her post-nap funk.) Nate loved it. It took me less than 5 minutes, but it changed the late afternoon grumpy time into fun time.

The speaker also asked us to remember what was fun in our own childhoods, and I remembered some great stuff.

• The sucker fairy at Hanshill. Looking back, it was so silly, but I LOVED the idea that the sucker fairy came overnight and planted those suckers (lollipops) in the front yard rocks at Hanshill. All of the cousins would run out and pick our suckers in the morning.
• The "performances" my friends and Greg and I would create. I remember being so serious about the musical we had made up to perform for our moms (Miss Kathy and Mama); my friend Katy and I had to keep correcting Greg over and over on his pronunciation of "the," since I think that was the only line we gave him. Haha!
• Sleeping in a tent in the back yard with Greg in Little Rock. Well, I remember starting off in the back yard but then being too scared (I think of bears), so we got moved to the deck. :)

Here are some more ideas that I have implemented or plan to implement:

• Play "library." Set up 10-12 books along the wall outside your child's room, and he/she gets to be librarian. I've done this twice with Nate, and although he's a bit old for it, he still likes when I pretend to be a customer and ask, "Mr. Librarian, I'm looking for a book that has bears in it... Do you have anything for me?" Then he goes and finds Goldilocks, etc.
• Family movie night. Plenty of people do this already, but make it even more fun by dressing in your PJs, printing "tickets" off the computer, setting up a "concession stand" on the dining table with popcorn, apple juice, candy, etc.
• Our house is already full of Daddy fun time (tickling, wrestling, getting tossed onto the couch). But the other evening when we were out to dinner, I asked Jon what fun things he remembered from his childhood. His first thoughts were blanket rides and popcorn nights. The next night, he gave Nate and Lucy their first blanket rides:
  
  
  
  

• Our speaker spoke about ice-cream kidnaps: put the kids to bed as usual, but 5 minutes later, come in and say, "Everyone up! In the car!" and drive to your local ice cream shop for surprise ice cream. (Make it especially memorable by having mom and dad wear their pajamas too.) We wouldn't exactly do this, since Nate can't have ice cream, but it made me think about doing a Christmas-tree-light kidnap. Each year, some time close to Christmas, we could surprise the kids after bed time with a car ride to view all the cool Christmas lights around town.
• Forts. It's universal; kids love playing in covered areas. Cover the kitchen table with blankets and put Legos or Barbies underneath for a fun afternoon surprise play location.
• Heads or tails walk. Go on a walk and bring a coin. At each intersection/street, toss the coin. If it's heads, go left; if tails, go right (or heads this side of the street, tails that side; heads skip, tails march).
• Camp out in the family room, tent and all (or at least sleeping bags).

Aren't those ideas fun and simple?--and so easy to accomplish. Ultimately, they give our kids a sense of belonging. Fun traditions help them feel like they are part of something cool, a family "team," and that will be so valuable!

Dinner update

n Monday evening, our first family dinner, I sent a text message to Jon at 6:15: "If this is how family dinners are going to go, then I am never doing it again."

I had set dinner time for 6:30 and made sure to give filling snacks to the kids around 4:30-5:00. But the fussing, whining, leg-pulling coming from the younger two was maybe going to drive me crazy. Levi is at the stage where he can pull up and cruise, so he finds me in the kitchen, pulls up and stands holding on to my legs, and now I'm stuck. (Side note: Casey and I laughed yesterday at the shared revelation that we both sometimes "run away" from the baby while in the kitchen so he/she won't pull up on our legs.)

Thankfully, Jon arrived home at 6:30 as the plates were being served. (With a drive all the way from Long Beach with plenty of traffic, he is already making plenty of effort just trying to be home by 6:30.) And eating together was wonderful. (Levi still needs some work, but hey, he's 1. And he usually goes to bed by 7:00.) Nate even took several bites of a food he thought he would hate.

Then, after dinner (when Levi was in bed), I noticed that play time/reading time with Nate and Lucy was more fun, probably because Jon and I weren't hungry and/or trying to fix another dinner. Another wonderful benefit was that Jon's and my time after we put the kids to bed is now "free." Although eating dinner together just the two of us was pleasant, now we can have that time for other things.

Last night (Thursday) was another family dinner (we have Tuesday and Wednesday evening commitments out of the house) and it also went well, this time with only Levi fussing up a storm beforehand (instead of Levi and Lucy both). :) That's what I call progress!

Gluten-free giveaway

I just entered the cookbook giveaway on this blog and promised I'd post about it on my blog. :)

Family dinner

ometimes I feel like I spend half of my mothering just feeling guilty for the things I'm not doing well or should be doing differently. One of those things has been family dinners. We don't do them. The routine started off that way because Jon almost always got home from work at 7:00 or later, which meant bed time was fast approaching. Combine that with the fact that our kids are the kind who start pant-leg-pulling and "begging" for dinner around 4:00, and you don't have a very easy recipe for family dinner. So, I took the "easy" road and made dinner for the kids at 5:00 and made a separate dinner for Jon and me to eat at 8:00 once the kids were in bed. Terrible, I know. It was just easier this way (easier logistically/schedule-wise, anyway), and hey, then we got to eat our own dinner in peace. But I've always hated it, deep down, because I know the value of eating together around the table every evening. I did it growing up, and I know that's where you reconnect as a family, teach/learn table manners, learn to participate in conversation, etc.

Now Jon gets home from work a little earlier most days, and our kids are older and better able to understand why they have to wait. So, starting today, we are having family dinners. I'll give the kids a 4:30ish snack, and then we'll eat dinner as a family. What a novel idea. I can hardly wait! :)

Invitations the cheap way

We're having a small get-together this Saturday for Levi's birthday. To make the invitations, I found a basic one I liked on Tiny Prints (the one I picked is here). Then, I just used Microsoft Publisher to recreate it myself. I uploaded my creation onto Snapfish as a picture and ordered the appropriate number of prints. Voila--easy invitations for 10 cents each instead of over a dollar each!

Here's my creation:



Here are some more detailed instructions if you need them. (These are intended for those of you without awesome programs like Photoshop and also without amazing computer skills!)

• Open Publisher and start with a custom-sized blank page; I did mine 4 inches by 6 inches, since that was the size invitation/picture I wanted to end up with
• Using the Objects/shapes toolbar, create some rectangles--one in the upper left corner, one spanning the bottom half. To color them in, double click on a rectangle and choose the "fill" and "line" colors. You'll notice I left a little bit of space between each of my rectangles; this created the white space you see.
• Again using the shapes toolbar, select a circle and create one the size you like. Color it appropriately, then copy/paste it several times and line them up to create a line of circles. Group all of those circles together by holding down the Ctrl key and clicking on each circle. After you click on each one, right click on one of them and select "Group." Now copy/paste the line of circles twice, and you have three lines of circles. Arrange appropriately.
• Create another, larger circle; fill it with white and make the line the same color as the circles at the bottom of the invite. Put it in the upper left-hand rectangle.
• Create a text box by clicking "Insert" then "Text Box." Put the text box in the top rectangle and create the text you want (e.g., "It's Levi's 1st birthday!") in the font you like (mine is called Pupcat and I got it from 1001freefonts.com). Color the text by highlighting it and choosing the font color.
• Create another text box to put inside the white circle, and type a 1 (or appropriate number) in the font and color you like.
• Now it's time for the wording in the bottom rectangle. I used WordArt, which is the "A" on the Objects toolbar. (You could also just insert another text box.) If you use WordArt, click the A on the toolbar, choose the type of WordArt you want, then type in your text, including line breaks. After you click OK, you can arrange the WordArt as desired and also right-click on it, format it and choose colors.
• The black text at the bottom of my invite is just a text box.
• Find a cute picture, and copy/paste it into your Publisher file. Resize it and crop it so it fits in the upper right-hand space you've so far left empty. (Resizing and cropping can be done using the Picture toolbar in Publisher.)
• Once everything is arranged how you'd like, you have to group everything together. Hold down the Ctrl key and press A. (This should highlight all items.) Then right-click and choose "Group Objects."
• Now right-click on the invitation, and choose "Save As Picture." Choose a name for your new picture file, and make sure to Save As Type: JPEG.

Now you have a picture file for your invitation, ready to upload to Snapfish or Shutterfly or print out on your computer. :)