Friends for Life

Ernie and BBJ

They've had a rocky relationship in the past. BBJ was an inquisitive baby, Ernie was a toddler who craved order. The minute BBJ started crawling toward Ernie was the minute Ernie started backing into a corner screaming...and when BBJ finally reached her, it never ended well for BBJ.

A year later, we had a 3-year-old and an almost 2. The screaming, the fighting over toys...it was rough.

Now this year, for our family reunion, these girls are inseparable. Ernie throws the ball, BBJ fetches. BBJ gets shy, Ernie coaches her ("Do you need to go to the bathroom, my dear?") They're sharing a room, and I almost didn't mind that they were up until 10:00 talking and giggling.

But we'll see how we feel about that in the morning *grin*

I am Possibly and Very Bad Aunt

These pictures tell a story. A story of a mean and horrible aunt.

Mimi is eating dinner. What's that on the floor?

Oh that? It's just Siu Jeun. Finding.....scraps.

Yes, Mimi is dropping her dinner on his head. And he's eating it. Eating the scraps that fell from her table.

Poor neglected child.

But victory is sweet! Finally, Siu Jeun gets his day in the sun...umm...chair.

We had a great night with all the cousins together- hope you guys had a great date, Aunt LoLo and Lo Gung! And, umm...wish we had two high chairs.

Some Things Don't Change

November 9th, 2007: What's left of Ernie's lunch

September 3rd, 2009: What's left of Ernie's lunch

Lunch Time

A few shots from Lunch today- Ernie was already asleep, but Mimi got a power-snooze while E was at school, and was NOT ready to sleep, thank-you-very-much. She was ready for quesadillas!

Look at that full head of hair!

You can't quite see it, but she has another tooth (that's 5 now). It's on the top, to the left (your left) of the two you can see.

Ever wonder why there are so many pictures of kids in high chairs? Why yes! It's because they're STAPPED DOWN! :) Makes picture-taking much easier. Heh.

Daddy Daughter

These are a little (OK, a lot) blurry, but they still make me happy. I love seeing Mimi with her Daddy.

It was a "banner day" in the Wonder house this morning, dressing for church: we declared Mimi mess-free! Because of this, Wonder Daddy wore a suit coat to church for the first time since she was born, and Mimi finally got to wear the beautiful silk dress her grandparents bought for her...last Christmas? Thank goodness for little girls with small torsos, that can fit into their Christmas dresses 9 months later :) (She can wear 6-month tops, but her pants are 12 month. 1 piece clothing, like sleepers and coveralls, are verging on 18 month!)

A Morning at Grandpa's

Have you noticed an uptick in the number of blog posts? Mama found her download cable for the camera, and I'm a little giddy!

We spent the morning at Grandpa's house- I was pretty excited, because it has been at least a month since we've seen him what with various colds, flus, and vacations. He was excited...because he was running low on my french bread ;o) (Kidding Grandpa! ...right? *grin*)

First Day of School

Ernie was so excited to start Joy School- she gathered up all her supplies before I took this "first day of school" shot, so you see her with her art smock, her box of art supplies, and the Joy Bear (a puppet who will help with lessons through out the year.)

Will my family also please note: These are her fancy clothes. This long sleeved shirt has a bow across the bodice- it is the "bow shirt" and is requested every Sunday to wear under the dress of the day. (Nana- this was originally part of the Christmas dress ensemble. Thank you :) The skirt is the Long Skirt. I made it for Christmas last year, intending to hem it to an appropriate length after giving it to her- my motion was denied. She loves the Long Skirt. What else...oh, new shoes. And striped socks.

This is our Fancy Girl!

Mimi is loving the books

Mimi adores books. If I am holding anything with pages she makes a beeline for it- she adores flipping through, turning the pages, feeling them in her hands. We have a low shelf of board books just for her, along with a stack of magazines for her to rifle through. She's remarkably good at being kind to books, but there have been a few mishaps- we try to keep things we want in one piece OFF the floor.

She also loves her two little rocking chairs. Her favorite stunt was to stand up, holding onto the back of the chair, and violently rock her torso to make the whole thing leap and shake. My near-constant reminders and removals did nothing to dissuade her, but a few choice face-plants changed her mind! It's a good thing the child is a master at falling without getting hurt, because she learns by doing, and is sure to have lots of bumps and spills in this life!

Here are a few shots Wonder Daddy snapped of her in her chair. Good shooting, Daddy!

(Photo Moment: My "someday" wishlist includes a nice DSLR camera, but I do NOT want one until I can learn how to take decent shots with our dependable point and shoot. No good having a Lexus if you can't drive a golf cart. So... see how grainy these shots are? I've been messing with the ISO- I don't like to use a flash, so I try and bump the ISO as high as I can without too much grain and "noise" to capture the kiddos. Flash does a great job of freezing the motion, but it doesn't look near as nice as natural light. So, I continue to fiddle :) I thought these turned out nice in the black and white (to cope with the bright windows behind her.)

Happy Birthday, Grandpa!

Last Saturday the girls and I loaded into the car for a G.A. (That's Grand Adventure, a nice term introduced to us by my Grandma. Basically it means if you set out to do something and plan to enjoy it, no matter what comes....you will! It's a Grand Adventure!)

We were on the road by 8:05, and had a great drive- our first stop of the day was for a fabulous playdate. Considering we threw together 1 sleepy Ernie, 1 mobile Mimi, 1 talkative and energetic Figs (3 y.o.), and 1 "I want to play too!" Halligator (16 mo), 2 large and sweet (and old) greyhounds, and a small flock of inquisitive chickens, it was a wildly successful morning! The girls had a great time, and Mama Papaya was so sweet to host.

Funny thing about Mama Papaya- I grew up going to school with her 2 younger sisters, her mom used to work with my dad, and I found her blog through her youngest sister's Facebook page! I'd never met her until 2 years ago I mentioned something about figs on my blog, and she wrote back to say "Come take my tree!" She's as sweet as a button, smart as a whip, WAY more crunchy than I am (but I'm getting there :), and a fantastic Mama to her sweet little girls. I wish I'd pulled out my camera, but I think all our hands were full ;o)

After our morning with them, we drove across town to attend my Grandpa's 80th birthday party. WOWZERS! Due to a lot of unforseen circumstances, what had been planned as a very large party ended up being my family, my aunt and uncle and cousin, and my grandparents. And a LOT of yummy food :)

Here's Bert, with Uncle David in the background

Grandma and Grandpa, while we sing Happy Birthday

Ernie, directing Uncle Jim on where exactly that ice cream needs to go, thank you very much.

One of my favorite shots of the day- Ernie was outside on the tire swing, but here Mimi and I are with my spunky, tiny, Grandma.

Piano!

It's big. It's loud. It's wide enough to share.

What's not to love?

Looking for Miracles

Today was the first day of our adventure in the Spanish branch! I hope to record some of our experiences and feelings, our gaffs and (eventual) triumphs.

First, know that if we make any progress at all is a testament that there IS a loving Heavenly Father who cares enough about us to help us learn this language! I took 1 year of spanish as a sophomore in high school, 1997-1998. That was a LONG time ago. Two weeks ago, I couldn't even tell you the time of day. Well, perhaps I still couldn't tell you the time of day. But I can read the Book of Mormon. I can read the Bible. I can read the Sunday School lesson manual. If those aren't miracles, then I don't know what is. Yes there are words I don't know, but WOW y'all...I can read! I find myself understanding what is written- not word for word, not painstakingly wracking my brain for every root verb of every conjugation, but I can understand!

Church was wonderful today. We arrived half an hour early to meet with the Branch President, President Martinez. We chatted in his office, Ernie drew him pictures on the white board, and we reiterated how excited we were to be in his branch.

In Sunday school class, I found myself staring at our teacher, willing my brain to wrap around her words. I understood the gist of what was said, but have a long way to go! It's interesting that our ward members are from all over the world...which means all different accents. There is one sweet, older, sister in the ward who I don't know if I'll ever be able to understand- she has a quiet voice, and what sounds like a permament frog in her throat. I wish I could, I'll try and speak with her next week.

I was able to read a few quotations in our Sunday School class- it was nice to use my voice, and not have to think of the words to say! I had to laugh when a sister asked me later how I learned Spanish so well, and again when I found that a young man in the ward assumed I was fluent. Oh yes. I have a fabulous accent, isn't that wonderful? Now I just have to find words to use it with! Seems like my vocal training, and the language training that went along with that, is going to pay off!

Wonder Daddy gave the closing prayer in his men's meeting today- he's not actually certain what language he used. The new ward joke is that he speaks "Portanol." (Portuguese y Espanol. Si?)

**if anyone can teach me how to use the international punctuation marks on this keyboard, I'd be grateful!!**

I had one conversation today, so I thought I'd record it- it was pretty horrible *grin*. Noticing there was no pianist in Relief Society, after class I made my way to the woman who conducted the meeting today, stood in front of her...and stared. I had completely forgotten all the carefully conjugated verbs I had been rehearsing in my head most of the meeting. I finally blurted out "Necesitas una persona tocar el piano?.....yo puedo." ("You need a person to play the piano? I can.")

Brilliant, right? She lit up like a Christmas tree- "Si! Si! Gracias! Habla con ella" gesturing to another woman who had been on the stand. I'm going on the assumption that woman is the Relief Society president. Now I have a week to memorize what I'm going to say to HER next Sunday!

Wonder Daddy and I read the Book of Mormon in spanish every night- I read aloud while he listens, and if there's a verb I don't know he reads the verse in English to we can translate together. I also picked up a "Dummy Guide" to Spanish from the library, and my sweet Dad dropped off a Spanish Immersion course he found at Costco (is there anything they DON'T sell?) Ernie is excited for the spanish course- it has games to play!

We're so very excited for this opportunity to make new friends, gain new skills, be a part of the Spanish Branch, and watch what the Lord would make of our lives.

When I grow up...

Joy School starts up in a few weeks, and we had our first Mommy Meeting yesterday to assign duties and lessons, and do other general "let's get ready stuff." My first lesson isn't until October (that's the beauty of having 5 little girls in our group, we only teach once every five weeks) but one of the first lessons is "Joy of the Body."

Someday, I want to be like Mimi. SHE has joy in her body. If you hear a thump, it's Mimi bonking her head into some new surface, to see what it feels like. If you hear a *whoomph* that's Mimi discovering that if he crawls a step or two and then flops onto her belly, it feels cool and all her breath leaves. If you hear slapping, she's patting her face or legs, just to see what it feels like.

She's constantly amazed at what her little body can do, and she's not afraid to push and find her limits.

I want to be like Mimi when I grow up.

Alice in Wonderland

Mimi LOVES to climb. It's kind of compulsive, and occasionally lands her in some sticky situations.