My brother

Today is Greg's 26th birthday. (What an old man!) I thought part of my gift to him could be a compilation of some of my favorite memories of him and thoughts about who he is. Sister Lucy has also contributed some fun memories.

• As kids, we played together every day in our family's back yard or around the neighborhood. I remember a lot of imagination-based games, like using our plastic golf clubs to stir the huge pile of leaves Daddy had raked--we were chefs cooking our soup. We also played a made-up game, "Friend," where I was the older (and of course wiser) sister, Samantha, and Greg was named Ducky. Once, in all seriousness, I asked our parents if we could change our names to Samantha and Ducky, and I remember being so angry when they said no. (I was probably 6 or 7, Greg 4 or 5).
• Even as a child, I think I had a sense that Greg adored me. Mama says he "worshipped the ground I walked on," and I probably knew it even at the time. I was definitely the boss, and Greg seemed content to do whatever I told him.
• Even though he is two years younger, Greg rode his bike without training wheels way before I ever did. I think he was a daredevil (OK, and I was a wimp).
• When we lived in California during elementary school, we used to ride our bikes or sometimes rollerblade to school together every day. On the rollerblading days, it seems more often than not Greg would forget to bring his shoes. (Perhaps my memory is exaggerated; maybe he only forgot them once or twice.) He'd have to call Mama when we got to school and wait around in his socks until she brought the shoes.
• In high school, Greg was impossible to get up in the mornings. Mama would make the "time to wake up" announcement to him, but he rarely did. I would usually forceably rouse him with about 10 minutes to go before we had to leave the house, and somehow, he was always in the car when it was time to go.
• Greg's high school wardrobe (at least early high school, while I was still there) consisted of plain white t-shirts and shorts. Every day.
• When we were both in high school, we usually ate lunch together every day with a few of our other friends (including another brother-sister combo).
• For my high school graduation, Greg gave me a necklace that he had had made with a family-heirloom diamond. It is probably my favorite necklace I've ever owned.
• There is a host of stories to be told about Greg and his best bud, Ryan. Most of those I know only second hand, but they include adventures with a potato gun, stealing a street sign (and getting caught), shooting each other with a BB gun to see how much it hurt, and I'm sure many, many more.
• Some of Greg's admirable attributes: his work ethic (passed down directly from our dad), his easy-going nature, his ability to have fun doing almost anything, his tender heart, his contagious laugh.
• Greg is already the favorite uncle. :)

Lucy's thoughts:

• Some of my most vivid memories from our childhood are from our living room in Massachusetts where Greg used to make me play "wrestlemania" with him. This would involve him chasing me around the room, tackling me, and things of that sort. He found a way to get me excited though by inventing my wrestlemania stage name of "Ninja Lucy."
• Greg was a big man on campus of our high school when he was a senior and I was a freshman. He was the captian of the football team and an all around popular guy. I would be walking down the hall and all of a sudden be surrounded by huge senior football guys all saying, "Hey! It's little McCann, it's little McCann!" Greg really was well liked by everyone, including his teachers, who would ask me about him four years later.
• When we moved to Virginia and Greg moved back in with the family after being away at school, we got to be closer than we had been before. He would hang out when friends came over sometimes, but mostly just to embarass the guys in polish ping pong. I always enjoyed having a big brother who was protective and wasn't afraid to scare my friends!

Not bad for a first try

I have never made clothes before. I'm really not that good of a seamstress, and I always need LOTS of instruction and clear directions on how to make something. That's why I'm proud of how this dress turned out. It's OK for a first try, and now I know what to tweak to make the next dress turn out much better! (And I will add trim or contrasting fabric or something to the next one; this was just a plain-as-possible first attempt.)

I found instructions here. The creator included lots of pictures and a detailed step-by-step guide, which is why I love it.

A video request

Here is Lucy saying "no." When she says it in defiance, it's a little more mischievous, but I wasn't going to try to encourage that just for a video. :)



Oh, and here's Nate how I found him sleeping last night. He hadn't done this in quite a while.

Second day pictures

I didn't remember to take a first-day-of-school picture yesterday, so here are some from Nate's second day. :) He's supposed to be waving in that first one.

First day back

Today is Nate's first day back at school. He has the same teachers and same classrooms as he had May through July, so there shouldn't be too much to adjust to (except the return to a quicker morning routine!).

I really enjoyed our last month together--Nate, Lucy, and me. Nate and I had some special times together whenever Lucy was in her hour of therapy (hour each on Wednesdays and Thursdays). We went to Starbucks together a few times (I brought him some juice), some parks on other days, and he was my special helper on some errands. I also loved our water park days. Nate rrreally loves those places, and Lucy ended up loving them more and more too (once she got over the fact that she has to get wet). :)

Now it's back to the daily routine, which is comforting but also busy!

Some pictures

First is 6-month very pregnant me, then Nate wearing the hat part of a hazmat suit Jon came home with, then Lucy with the bunny ears she kept asking me to put on, and last is Nate very excited today when he found out he could watch an episode of Super Why on the computer.

The wonder of the smoothie

I often feel like my greatest physical responsibility for my kids is feeding them properly, and I felt like a big failure in this area when Nate turned out to be such a finicky eater. I didn't do anything drastically different with Lucy, and she has turned out to be an eat-everything-offered-and-then-more kind of child. Case in point: today at lunch she ate broccoli, chicken, carrots, water chestnuts, cheese, tomatoes, and toast (meanwhile, Nate ate a corn tortilla, 3 walnuts with encouragement, and applesauce). This has relieved a lot of the guilt I had before, because I've realized that I did my best under the circumstances with Nate.

To get good fruits and vegetables into Nate, I've started making smoothies every night at dinner. It is amazing what kinds of things you can put into a smoothie and still have it taste good. Can you believe that banana covers up the taste of fresh spinach or frozen broccoli? It does. I've found, though, that nothing covers up the taste of peas. That smoothie was yucky.

Here is how I make my favorite gluten-free, casein-free, soy-free versions of smoothies (makes 2 generous servings):

One half to a whole banana
Half an avocado
Handful Trader Joe's (TJ's) frozen berries (blue, rasp, black)
4-5 fresh strawberries or TJ's frozen strawberries
Handful fresh, washed spinach leaves or handful frozen broccoli
About 3/4 cup apple juice
6-7 ice cubes

Blend and serve!

I always include whatever fresh fruit I have on hand (today was kiwi). I also sometimes throw in some TJ's frozen mango, which has become a favorite purchase.

After I blend, I reserve a little bit for Lucy (she loves them too), then I add Nate's special multivitamin powder (we just started it this week, and it's powdery, crunchy, and kind of yucky) and blend his some more.

Aha!

Lucy has been on and off extra fussy for the past couple of weeks, and today I felt why: two molars coming in. This is a surprise to me, as she still only has two top and two bottom teeth! Don't the molars usually come in after more of the front teeth do? I guess it's different for each child.

Another new development for our girl child: she now understands (and wields) the power of "no." As in, "Lucy, come here and lie down, please." "No." It's unfortunate that she looks so cute when she says it, because it is obviously blatant disobedience. So I try not to laugh/smile. :)

Wandering Waif Collection GIVEAWAY

I came upon this site through Shealynn. Kathleen gives away her cute creations every two weeks. Here's the current giveaway.

Wandering Waif Collection GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

Room for girl and boy

I'm starting to think about rooming possibilities for the children once number three arrives. Of course, I'll probably keep him in a bassinet in our room for the first few months. After that, I'll have to decide who shares a room: Nate and Lucy (perhaps not ideal because Nate doesn't sleep very well) or Lucy and the baby (depending on how well the baby sleeps). No matter what, I'd probably put the baby in the bedroom next to ours, since Nate's room is all the way upstairs. The only small problem with that is Lucy's room is outrageously girl. And I love it. So I've been thinking about what to do to decorate.






The room is pink and green. Perhaps I'll paint one wall green--maybe the kelly green I have in the kitchen? That's the wall I'd put baby boy's crib against. I've also been looking for boyish fabrics that have frogs on them--maybe surfer frogs, camping frogs, etc.? I could use these for crib bedding and they would coordinate with Lucy's girl frog fabrics (which are on her crib right now and--I hope--will transition somehow to a toddler bed). Here are some fabrics and decor items I've found so far:













Some of the wall art is very cute, but I haven't found just the right fabrics yet. I'm thinking I could also do something simple--a white waffle-weave-type fabric for a bumper and bed skirt, with appliqued frogs.

Edited to add: found this cute fabric at purlsoho.com:

Diaper update

I've been exclusively cloth diapering Lucy now for a couple of weeks, and I'm loving it. It's easier than I had imagined with traveling/going out, and so I've only used a couple of disposables in the last weeks for times when she is at therapy and I think there's a chance she might create a dirty diaper. Nannie ordered me several Fuzzi Bunz, and I've decided I prefer those over Bumgenius, though I still love all of them. I like the snaps on the Fuzzi Bunz--I don't have to fuss with the velcro laundry tabs (or the velcro sticking to dirty stuff when I change her). And the Fuzzi Bunz are slimmer and trimmer since they are sized (Lucy is in mediums with lots more room to grow), so Lucy doesn't waddle so much with the bulk. I'm using the Bumgenius for overnight and especially under clothes that have a more generous fit, but the Fuzzi Bunz work on her smaller-bottomed outfits. Also, the Bumgenius sometimes leave red marks around Lucy's legs, but I can't do any more adjusting to make them bigger there; I haven't had this problem with the FB. Overall, I'm very pleased with this easy change and love that I haven't bought disposable diapers in over a month--and I'm not looking back! :)

For fun

Here are some silliness-around-the-house pictures and a video from the past couple of days.

What's going on with us

I've been missing from the blog lately, I know! I haven't felt inspired with anything smart to say. :) Here's what we've been up to... Went to another pool/water park last week (Nate was scared of a big bucket that tipped and created a huge waterfall every few minutes, but once he got used to that, he loved this new place). We also went to a TACA "Pump It Up" night last Wednesday; Jon was able to meet us after work and Nate loved it (it was at a warehouse filled with several huge bounce house/slide contraptions for the kids to climb and jump in). We've also had several playdates, including a fun one today at a park that was new to Nate. The kids have also loved the couple of times we've done a Trader Joes/Chik-fil-a day. Nate can have the fries at Chik-fil-a, so it's a special treat. On Saturday we drove up to Brea to see our friends Phil and Katrina's new house--it is beautiful!!! (Katrina was my college roommate.)



Nate's month of summer has been good and bad. It has been fun for him to get to have some fun-only weeks without commitments. However, I think it has also been a little disorienting to him; he enjoys and is comforted by routine, schedule. Now, with no real schedule of going to school every day, he asks me several times a day what we are doing tomorrow, what we are doing after nap time, etc. He is trying to organize things in his head, I think.

I'm 23 weeks pregnant now. The new development this week has been the baby's exercises at precisely 10:30 every night. He must think I'm a punching bag... He will kick really quickly 10 or more times in a row--too funny. At least it doesn't hurt.

Tomorrow I have an AWANA directors meeting, which means fall ministries are just around the corner... already!!!

Blogging light

We've been having another fun week here. For now, here are some pictures.

Recent pictures

Click on each one to make it bigger. :)

Sibling fun

I know what the kids are doing in this video probably isn't on the "safest games to play" list, but they were having so much fun... :)

First try

I just put Lucy's first Bumgenius diaper on her. It looks so cute! But the funny part is that she is waddling a little bit to get used to the different feel. We'll see how it goes!

On another note, here she is last night after a bath:



8/8/08 Edited to add: I used two cloth diapers yesterday and loved them. I can't believe how soft and dry the first one was on the inside when I changed Lucy after 3+ hours (including her afternoon nap). The insert was soaked and worked great. The second diaper had to be changed quicker, if you know what I mean, and it was very easy. I'm waiting for the PUL bag I ordered to arrive; that will help make storing the dirty diapers easier. (The wetbags are washable, and you just wash them with the load of diapers, so I will eventually get a second one to use while the first is washing.) (And I'm also going to get a cute wetbag to keep in the car. Look at the ones at this girl's shop.)

Odds and ends update

We had a great weekend here, highlighted by a successful surprise birthday party for Jon on Saturday night. I wasn't sure I'd be able to pull it off--it's hard to surprise him--but he had no idea. We had 25 people (or thereabouts) and their kids (about 10) at the house. It was close to max capacity, and it was great. (As you can see, I got barely any pictures; I was holding Nate during Jon's entrance, which is why the one picture is not good at all!)




Our first real week of summer last week was nice. I want to give Nate lots of the fun play time he misses out on during school, so we had several fun activities: a pool/water park day in Ladera Ranch, a couple of hours in the fountains at the Spectrum, etc. He also came with me when I took Lucy to her hour of therapy on Wednesday at Cornerstone, where he used to go. He was really excited to see his favorite former therapists, and he started getting shy when so many adults were coming up to him to say how big he is, how much he is talking, and to ask him questions.

Today I'm in Long Beach for part of the day at the graphic design studio I do work from home for. The kids are at Ray and Colleen's house and, I'm sure, having a wonderful time.