Day 210: Sweeping

With no prompting from me at all, Zaria decided to grab the broom from the utility closet (which she's not usually allowed in) and start walking around the kitchen sweeping. Of course, this was a little difficult since she didn't want to put down the bear and there's the obvious size problem of this broom, but it's fun to see her wanting to help out!

Day 209: Writing

Jamin's been working on a sci-fi novel for some time now. He has quite a bit done, but really got back into it today after not writing much for some weeks.

Day 208: Car fixing

It was a lovely day to do some car work, so Jamin and Roy had fun doing up some brakes and a couple of other things for our friend Cassie. Zaria came out and enjoyed watching for a while, as well. Cas rewarded us by taking us all out to eat at Taste of India, which was very yummy even if some of the spice didn't agree with us later.

Day 207: Kazoos

Day 206: Concert going

They didn't allow cameras inside Club 3 Degrees (not that that stopped most people--there were tons of cameras), so I took this shot on the way to the club to see Skillet, Thousand Foot Crutch and Decypher Down. It was an awesome concert and so fun to see Skillet again in a non-Sonshine concert. I think Karin and I figured it'd been about 10 years . . . we're getting old, but we felt very young this night. Ten of us hopped into a 15-passenger van along with some other friends Krista knew from Ridgewood Church, and we all rode downtown and got a really close parking spot. It was an awesome night. In this picture, you see Karin on the far left, me, Krista, and Joe. Behind them are Jamin and Joel.

Day 205: Two kids to the library

I tried it out today-- I was watching Gwendolyn today, and decided we would try to go to the library this morning. It was definitely a challenge bringing a 33-month old and a 15-month old to and from the car, through the revolving doors, up the elevator and then keeping track of them in the kids' section. But it was really worth it and probably good practice. They had story time going on for the 4-6 year-olds, which we sort of joined for a while, but it was definitely beyond them both even though they enjoyed the songs and Zaria enjoyed dancing along. They eventually wandered off nearby and found a common bond in looking through the board books.

Day 204: Walking on a nice day

We were visiting Mom and Dave this evening to play games and do some taxes, and it was so nice out we all decided to go for a walk. Princess (the dog) helped and actually pulled Zaria's stroller to a certain extent. Maybe spring is here?

Day 203: Let's make some music, dolly

Day 202: Happy Easter!

We had a fun time with my Dad's side of the family today for Easter, and of course Zaria was having fun in the limelight, being the baby of the group. The above picture shows my cousin Vicki with daughter Lauren on her lap, and then my uncle Tim and Dad on the couch. The kids (Lauren, Zaria and family friend Matthew) had just finished collecting their Easter eggs. Zaria got the idea of putting eggs in her basket, but had the most fun opening the eggs, dumping the contents, and then putting it back in the egg. Probably good she didn't get interested in eating the jelly beans at this age. She was having much too fun walking around and exploring, and fortunately it was mainly her fingers that went in her mouth.

Day 201: Electricity fun

We went to the Bakken Museum today with a library pass, along with Gwendolyn, Dan and Naomi. We had fun playing with static and magnets, creating electrical music and learning a few things. The museum is in a beautiful old mansion on Lake Calhoun. Below is part of the roof with the lake park in the background. One thing I wouldn't recommend is bringing children under 4 to see the Frankenstein show-- we took Zaria out fairly early, and Gwendolyn got very scared waking up to the monster's voice after falling asleep in the darkened room.

Day 200: Kids's table at lunch

I'll be watching Gwendolyn for a few days coming up, so we needed a set-up for Zaria to eat. Her attachable chair wouldn't attach to the big table, but fit nicely on this bench. It's a little wobbly, but with the support of the couch nearby it worked quite well. Zaria was pretty hungry-- after finishing her half sandwich, she grabbed for some of Gwendolyn's leftover bread, a very hearty wheat bread I wasn't sure she'd like.

Day 199: In the Waiting Room

Here's Zaria in the waiting room at the car dealership while we got an oil change. She was pretty good about staying in the room, but here she's considering her mobility options.

Below are X and Y in the waiting room. For anyone unfamiliar with how early pregnancy shows, 8 weeks is pretty early, but I'm definitely sticking out more than I was 2 weeks ago. It's common for a second pregnancy to show sooner than a first, and from research I've done, I will look much bigger than the mother of a singleton as the weeks go by.

Day 198: Walk in the park

It felt like spring might be here today, so we took a walk to the park. Zaria wanted nothing to do with the swing (which used to be her favorite thing), but she loved having a chance to push her stroller. We just had to be careful of the mega-puddles.

Day 197: Bubbles

Sometimes at the end of the day, you just need to blow some bubbles. They also work great to diffuse road rage while sitting at traffic lights.

Day 196: 15 months and more new snow

Zaria is 15 months and one day old today, and had her well-child visit at the doctor's office. She is a well child, and pretty close to the 50th percentile in everything, now even a little above for height, so she's finally lengthening out a little now that she's walking. We were getting ready to go in the photo above. She was needing some comfort from her teddy bear and pacifier after getting a couple of shots. Yup, I did end up letting her get the MMR shot, but I also opted to wait until now rather than when she was 12 months so that her system would be a little more developed and able to handle it. I feel confident in the decision, and it's probably good especially now for her to have the rubella vaccination since she'll be around a preggo mom.

It also snowed today, so I had to take a picture by beautiful Medicine Lake while I was in the neighborhood. Isn't this week supposed to have the first day of spring? Are we going to have snow for Easter?

Day 195: So tired

We went to visit Anna and Anders tonight, visiting instead of also babysitting this time. But we only got in a couple of rounds of dominoes because the kids were so tired. Nils, pictured above, was the best off, just being able to bounce himself into dreamland. Zaria and Emil weren't quite that quiet.

Day 194: Scrapbooking party

Zaria kept me busy during a lot of our scrapbooking party, but the four of us, Shawna, Abby, Martha and I managed to finish a book for Abby and Martha's mom's 60th birthday surprise party within 5 hours. They were really organized and had some great photos ready to go. Martha's little 2-month-old son Keenan slept through most of it, but I struggled to get Zaria to nap. At the same time, Jamin was busy helping Dan and Naomi move into their new home, so after packing up my scrapbooking supplies, I went to join them and eat dinner at Lee Ann Chin's. Apparently Chinese food really agrees with me, because I was able to eat more at the meal than I have in any meal during the last two nauseous weeks.

Day 193: Trying on hats

This is a pretty new thing for Zaria. She was indifferent to hats as a newborn, has been quick to pull hats off since she discovered the ability to, and now she's enjoying trying them on. She actually handed this one to me to put on for her after attempting it herself. So there is hope we'll get her to wear hats again!

Day 192: Exploring outside

It was time to get outside! A lot of snow has melted, so I let Zaria walk around and enjoy the great outdoors of our driveway. She picked up a few rocks to admire and hand to me. Yes, she licked a couple of them, too. She is definitely enjoying the freedom of walking.

Day 191: Sound check

Last week I went in to relearn how things are done, this week I got to practice on my own. I'm still a little confused as to where I'm supposed to plug everyone in, but it's getting better. These cords gave me a bit of trouble-- I didn't find out until Sunday that the cord to Nicole's djembe drum was faulty, and that was after trying 3 different microphones. *sigh*

Day 190: Ashes and visits

We had a special Mother's Fellowship today, an Easter celebration service. One of the activities we did was to write down our burdens and nail them to a cross. Then, without looking at what was written, a couple of the leaders pulled all the slips of paper off and brought them outside to be burned in the fire pit outside. There are some large windows that look out into the garden area that includes the fire pit, so we were able to watch as our burdens went up to God in smoke. It was amazing. I wept a little, probably partly due to pregnancy hormones kicking in. I am just so grateful to God that instead of the possible horror I was dreading of an ectopic pregnancy, I am blessed to have two healthy growing babies inside.

In the evening we had a chance to visit Jamin's folks along with Dan, Naomi and Gwendolyn. Marla pulled out a box of musical instruments, which were fun to bang around with for both Zaria and Gwendolyn, but I think they enjoyed playing a "duet" on the keyboard even more.

Day 189: Doubly big news

Yes, this image is rather obscure, but I went in for an ultrasound this morning to find out that . . . I'm carrying twins!! This is very exciting and overwhelming. If you can figure out how to read these ultrasound pictures, there are two separate sacs, which means they won't be identical. That also means we could be having a girl and a boy, but we won't know about that for some time.

Due date

I guess I forgot to mention a due date--they should be coming in late October. It would be about Oct. 28 (my mom's birthday) if they came full term. But multiples often come a little early, so we'll see.

Day 188: Bug walking

Zaria is really gaining confidence with her walk. She was able to have lots of quality dad-time today, especially since he was volunteering in the nursery. I think all the kids, including the bigger ones that don't usually take morning naps, took naps today in the nursery. All their little time clocks were messed up with the daylight savings time today. We also got to visit my Dad and Dawn today. Zaria hasn't seen them much lately, so she was a little shy, but she really got to laughing when her grandpa acted surprised whenever she hit spoons together. I don't know if I've ever seen her laugh so hard.

Day 187: Cousins playing

Dan, Naomi and Gwendolyn came over to visit again this afternoon. The girls enjoyed trying on hats and showing each other their stuffed toys while Dan and Naomi went grocery shopping for some salad supplies. They are all very excited to move into their new house next week and have a little more room to live and work. Both will be working from home and may want me to come over a few days a week to watch Gwennie to help them get some work done. We're so glad they'll be close again!

Day 186: Tribute to Stone

Today we remembered our friend, Jim Stone, who died suddenly and untimely in a car accident last Friday. Since he had been a serviceman, below is a photo taken outside of the color guard who had just fired off their salute in the parking lot after the funeral. It was bitterly cold outside, but an amazing night. Stone touched the lives of many, many people. I hadn't previously realized he didn't have any kids of his own because he was always surrounded by young people that considered him their "dad". He had 3 stepkids, and at least 20 "adopted kids" that he poured his love and wisdom into. We always felt welcomed by him and part of the "family" at Sonshine-- even after Jamin and I had been gone for a few years he remembered us and welcomed us for pancakes. He will be sorely missed.
After the memorial service, we sojourned to a local restaurant and enjoyed some music from Vessel and In Overflow, the band our friend Karin is in. We had last seen Jim at the In Overflow concert the week before he died, bringing two of his "kids" from Wisconsin to support Karin's band. In Overflow wrote and sang a tribute to Stone that you can download here: www.myspace.com/zzf

Day 185: Playtime

We visited Jen and Maria again today, enjoying some leftover Papa John's pizza. I was having trouble eating much, feeling a little queasy all week actually. But the girls had a good time looking at books and pushing strollers. Especially when Jen realized she had a second stroller and they both went around in circles with them.

Day 184: Icicles

There is hope for a thaw soon! And happy birthday to my stepbrother Brian today! Our folks took him out to dinner and Zaria joined them. Hopefully she didn't steal too much of his birthday spotlight.

Day 183: Traveling with music

At Mothers' Fellowship, there was really only one song we sang that needed the tambourine, but I also broke out the dc Talk tape today to listen to while I did some cleaning. I had it out yesterday when Cassie and Kami came over to play Pop 5 with Jamin and I. None of them had heard of "soap-on-a-rope" as a true fad, but Jamin remembered that dc Talk's "Luv is a Verb" mentioned putting "soaps on a rope cuz they ain't worth hopin'.

Day 182: Hey, little tambourine girl

Day 181: Walking and visiting

Arms usually out, Zaria is getting more and more confident walking around. It means she can get into more things, but so far hasn't gotten into any trouble. We also had a visit from Jamin's folks this evening. They came over and played Boggle with us and enjoyed some Pannekoeken that I attempted for the first time. (I tried it first to make sure it wasn't too much of an experiment-- it was pretty good, but not quite as fluffy as the real thing.) Marla enjoyed the family of Squiggles in the book she's looking at. I think Zaria will enjoy that one when she gets a little older and can appreciate some of the humor.

Day 180: More hands

Another hand comparison, between Jamin and Zaria. But actually they were both having fun drumming out a rhythm on the table together.