Mission Trip 2011

Sacramento, New Mexico was wonderful fun! X did well, first night was a little rough, but after that she was a good sleeper, worker, and participated fully!

Of course, her absolute favorite of the week was the dirt piles. She was the filthiest baby ever for a week (We gave her sink baths most nights which did a little good--and one shower which she SCREAMED through)...

She was a good worker. She helped the lumberjack team who were cutting and carrying logs down the mountain.

Cleaning dining hall windows with mama.

Lots of play too! Pastor Lee is taller than Ric or I (but not taller than Tayta), so X has a couple people in her life that lift her Really High.

Swinging with Gramama.

Feeding the fish in the pond with Gramama.

She worked hard, played hard, and slept hard. Although, her pack and play is looking pretty small for her now.

Ricardo's team replaced the roof on this funky pavilion. Weirdest roofing job ever.

Finished roof! Good job Ricardo and Team!

There were also 3 other teams--and lots of projects completed. Since blogging seems to take more time than I have these days, I'm probably not going to post the pictures from all the teams (I would have to sort through over 1,000 photos to do that!)

Twin night. Gramama, X and I wore our new aprons from Alisha.

Diaper hat.

planking

if you haven't heard of it before, it's a senseless phenomenon. Apparently, it is a fad to lay face down with arms at sides in random locations and take pictures of it :)

like so:

While I am not advocating this activity, it was pretty entertaining to watch all the youth on mission trip (not just the youth, actually) having fun and being creative with planking mission trip pictures.

And, of course...everyone was so excited when X learned to plank.

More Mission Trip planking pictures here.

stats

So, last month X had her 2 year well check and she's doing fine!

Her head is plenty healthy, measuring 18.5 which is 45th percentile,

Height is 33.5, 50th percentile (only 2.5 inches she needs to grow before October and Disneyland, so she can go on all the rides :)

and...

Weight.

At least she's over 20 lbs now. A whopping 22 pounds (with clothes/shoes on), which still leaves her at way below the percentile chart. But, she eats a ton and it developing fine, so apparently I still don't need to be worried about it.

And, I'll have my 28 week appt. this week (yay for the gestational diabetes juice....blah), and maybe, just maybe I'll post a belly pic. Several people noticed that I got a lot bigger this past week on Mission Trip (camp food maybe??) So, now I get to feel nice and big while it's 105 outside. We'll not be going outside until September :)

Mission Trip pics coming soon!

Birthday Picnic

Ok, Xaris can be 2 now...I'm finally blogging about her birthday.

Sorry it took me so long to get the pictures up! The problem is not my lack of time on the computer (because I work every night after X is in bed...wonder how that schedule is going to work out for me once there's two of 'em??)

The problem is not my disinterest in blogging--because I keep wanting to post more and keep checking friend's blogs!

The problem is remembering to download photos from the camera to the computer. And needing to find the cable to do so. Or the adapter for the SD card. That one little step is what prevents me from posting so much more than I do--and lately, many of this blog's pictures have been from the iphone, because I can e-mail them to myself and then just have them directly on my computer.

Anyways, I just found the cable, connected the camera, and now have pictures from a 2 year old's birthday picnic to post! It was the most beautiful day possible--warm, borderline too hot, but tolerable, and we snagged the last picnic table in the shade!

Started out with wagon rides from Gramama, while we waited for guests...She looks grumpy here, but I think it was just sun in her eyes.

She wanted more wagon rides...

Picnic lunch!

LOTS of bubbles

She really got the hang of opening presents this year

X's friend Jack ("Yack" is what she calls him) and his mom Leslie!

Other guests--Gramama, and the two pastors I work with, and their wives!

Loved this picture--not sure what this face is, because she loves these cupcakes and devoured it on her birthday picnic.

Cupcake in one hand, cookie in the other...what a happy girl!

Exploring the Peter Rabbit Flower houses in the Arboretum...

We had lots more adults than kids at this picnic--however, if all the families we had invited were able to come, it would have been the other way around. Maybe we should stop having birthday picnics for X, as it seems illness will strike a large percentage of those invited? Anyway, she did have two little friends, Jack and Luke, to play with, and we are so grateful for all those who came to celebrate our girl!

Closing shot: A thank you and goodbye hug for Jack.

sisters

It's a girl!

Or appears to be--she was rather uncooperative for the sonogram, but that's what the Dr and the tech both concluded. Everything looks fine, she seems healthy and wonderful at this point, weighs 10 ounces and I'm 20 weeks along tomorrow.

Just wanted to share our news--looks like the poll was a bit off!

love, and good night!

4+ syllable words

We're having fun with a very communicative little girl. X chatters all the time, and each day we hear new words and phrases and sentences. She sometimes mixes Spanish and English (very cute--when she says things like "que mess", or "mas applesauce por favor").

My current favorites are the long words. She has multi-syllable words that still don't come out right. Here's a lesson in understanding Xaris.

So-mo-mo = telefono.

Po-na-mo = hipopotamo (also the same word used for platano--banana).

Ni-no-nonte = rinoceronte

Da-doodle-oodle-oodle-oo = rooster

Ah-lee-dupe-dee-dedo = helicoptero

how she sleeps

I've put lots of pictures up (blog, facebook) recently about how much of a bed hog Xaris is. It's impossible to get much sleep with her next to you, so I rarely share the bed with her, but there are occasions when she just has trouble falling asleep, or wakes up just a bit too early and will snuggle in bed for another hour or so.

I don't believe I've shown anyone yet how she falls asleep though. This is her new habit--she does it most nights to fall asleep!

Yep! Folded hands! Every night!

Most of the time the last thing we have done before she falls asleep is pray, so it could be for that reason. I kind of think it's just because it's something she's learned how to do recently and has made it her habit. Anyway, I think it's sweet. She often wants me to hold her feet while she's holding her hands so she can fall asleep.

If I ever need a picture of a little girl praying, I'll just rotate and crop this one!

new skill

X has shown that she is perfectly capable of blowing her own bubbles. Now if she could only manage to hold the bubble container without spilling it all...