Day 367: My view

Not a bad view, considering. They're doing a huge construction project on the Children's Hospital across the street. I woke up to a lot of banging this morning, like they were driving in some pilings or something.

I think I messed up somewhere along the line on my day numbering, seeing as how I'm on day 367 . . . it's a bit of a hassle to go back and try to change it, so I guess it is what it is. Tomorrow is my birthday, and I've been told the sad news that I won't be discharged until at least Thursday, the day after. I guess it will be a memorable birthday in the hospital, and hopefully the last b-day I'll have to do in one.

Day 337: Community dinner birthday

First Baptist had our monthly community dinner (lunch) after the service today with barbecued burgers and potluck items, and somebody brought a birthday cake. So we all got to sing for Susan, who had a birthday today. She's one of the church members that has been there since she was in nursery. It's really fun to be at a church that has people like that.

Day 336: Great Grandma's 103rd birthday

We celebrated my Great Grandma Ethel's (Cubby's) 103rd birthday today. Above she's pictured with her three sons, Gerald (my stepdad Dave's dad), Gene and Dave, and her daughters-in-law Barbara, Karen and Lynn. Great Grandma is in great shape, though she has trouble hearing people.

Below is her baby gown. Somebody at the party said that it was often a tradition to use cloth from a woman's wedding gown to use for her baby's christening gown, so this fabric is well over 100 years old.

Day 328: Robert's bday and FBC dinner

We went to Robby's 1st birthday party this afternoon-- today's the actual day! I was very impressed that he likes to eat lettuce (Zaria will pull it out of her mouth). He's apparently a very good eater.

Then we headed downtown to FBC to join with the Community at Calhoun gathering. We missed the lake time, but joined everyone at church for the dinner. It was a tropical theme, so it was very fun and a great time of fellowship. Mandy was walking around taking lots of pictures, so I caught her in the act. I was sad to hear we'd missed three baptisms at the lake. My own baptism was in a lake-- I liked the idea of being in God's creation while taking that step.

Day 287: Happy Fathers' Day

So, not only did Jamin have to work on his birthday, we ended up taking him to the ER for Fathers' Day. He got a piece of broccoli lodged towards the bottom of his esophagus and for a while he couldn't even swallow his own spit without it getting stuck. After some attempts at medicinal treatments, he still had trouble, but could at least swallow liquids. We were a little late, then, for Gwendolyn's third birthday party, and he had to watch me eat pizza and cake while he was only able to get a glass of Yo-J down. Still, we had fun spending time with family, and we even got Zaria in a swing for about 2 minutes to take a picture of the three cousins, Elena Zaria and Gwendolyn. Gwen was trying out her new tricycle and Zaria would not let go of this little doll.

Day 285: Birthday FNG and Potty time

Zaria wanted to sit on the potty today and started pulling magazines to read while she sat (apparently she's noticed that we do this). I thought it was especially amusing that she wanted to read a Marriage Today magazine.
Sort of last minute, we hosted Friday Night Group at our house and had some cake for Jamin's birthday, which is tomorrow. It was a nice small group, perfect for our limited space, and we even worked in a game of Bocce ball. It's hard to see in the above photo, but I arranged the candles into the number 32. The wax was melting pretty well by the time Jamin held the cake, so he had to blow the candles out quickly.

Day 280: John Deere birthday

We celebrated Emil's 3rd birthday today in grand John Deere style. Everything was yellow and green, and he got lots of tractors and farm equipment, which he loves. Zaria found his hat for him and helped put it on his head. She apparently likes saying Emil's name because she repeated it many times on the way there and said "bye Emil" many times on the way home.

Day 264: Happy Birthday Roy!

This is our friend Roy, who is 31 years old today (unless you believe his license that they messed up, which says he turned 30 last month-- for some reason they were 11 months off on his birth date). For his birthday he invited a bunch of friends over and made some fabulous Indian food. It was very good. Jamin didn't get into town until after midnight, so he missed the celebration.
I also love this picture of Zaria's cheeks. They've gotten a little bit smaller, but they are still extremely kissable.

Day 257: Birthday cake

We celebrated Sam and Karin's birthdays this evening after looking at some houses. Here Sam and his cousin Gideon enjoy some chocolate cake while Karin prepares some more pieces. We didn't arrive until after 8 pm, so Zaria didn't participate in the cake-eating. She was already pretty tired and definitely didn't need sugar that late.

We weren't able to look at the home we wanted to put an offer in on, but we looked at some comparables with my dad and one of them caught our attention. It had a bigger kitchen and a less busy street, so it may be a contender if we like the neighborhood.

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 144: Travis and Troy

At Friday Night Group we celebrated the duo birthday of Travis and Troy. Their actual birthday is Sunday, and I believe they've reached that 30-year mark this year. I've asked them before if they often got the same presents on their birthday, and they said they did, but in different colors. Travis liked red (and is pictured in red above) and Troy liked blue.

It's interesting with the FNG that there are 3 shared birth dates, but only the one set of twins. Kelly and Brenda share a birthday, as well as Zaria and Kelly's daughter Rebecca. And Kelly's due date for her second child is on Sam's birthday, so who knows if we might have another? Happy Birthday, Travis and Troy!

Day 142: Microfishe

My mom joined the kids for Storytime at the library today while I did a little research on microfiche. I wanted to find out what some of the world news events were on Zaria's birthday to put into her baby book, and as long as I was at it, I looked up news events on my birthday. Unfortunately, their records barely went back 30 years ago for the New York Times, and it just so happens that there was a newspaper strike from August to November of my birth year. They had some rough AP stories to fill in the gap, but who wants to look through a bunch of AP stories when you've got a toddler starting to whine for lunch? Glancing though them did make me nostalgic for working with the morning news group at KBOO in Portland, but I still wasn't able to spend that kind of time.

Day 137: Marla's birthday celebration

Happy birthday Marla! We had Jamin's folks over for dinner this evening, though her actual birthday is the 16th. Special surprise-- Jamin's brother Bill was in town, so we were also able to have him and his daughter Elena join us for dinner. Nice to visit with them, and nice to have less cake sitting around our place! We put candles on the cake for her to blow out (she said she couldn't remember the last time she had candles), and then had her cut the first piece. Elena said that was a tradition for the birthday person to cut the first piece so we went with it. We also attempted a timed family picture of all of us, which I think is pretty cute even if it looks like Zaria's ready to attack my head.

Day 130: Mai and Isaac come to play

I didn't make it to FNG this week, and last minute decided to invite Cassie over for dinner and games, who then invited our old friend Sarah and her two kids, Isaac and Mai to come over. So we had a full house! Isaac helped watch the girls a little bit, but Mai and Zaria had fun playing with various musical toys while us grown-up girls played a game of Hoopla. Good food, good fellowship, and a fun game even though we were often distracted. Earlier in the day I took Zaria, Jen and Maria to see the Model Railroad Museum in St. Paul-- today is Jen's birthday! The museum was really cool and kid-friendly, one of those free museum pass places you can check out at the library. Next time I need to remember to bring my camera.

Day 120: Happy New Year, happy birthday

This is actually the sun setting, not rising for a New Year. I was way asleep when the sun rose. It's a nice view of Minneapolis from my grandparents' place. We went there today to help celebrate my Uncle John's 60th birthday today. My mom decided to stand on her chair to help direct us in the singing of the happy birthday song. Zaria was also quite an attention getter for the evening.

Day 106: Dancing with the grandmas

Zaria got the musical bug in her tonight. Maybe it was because she got a xylophone for her birthday tonight with Grandpa Lee and Grandma Dawn. My Grandma Alpha enjoyed the show, too. Maybe it was that I kept singing "baby" songs to her all day, inspired by the baby shower last Thursday. Maybe she just has the joy of the Lord in her. She was certainly a delight tonight.

Day 105: Zaria's First Birthday!

Yes, she had cake and enjoyed it very much. No, she wouldn't leave her "It's my first birthday" hat on, even for a quick photo op (see below). Wow, how did it get to be a year already?

Some of Zaria's favorites/milestones:
Favorite words/sayings: "Uh-oh" or "a-bib-a-bib-a-bib-el"
Locomotion: She pulls up into standing position and walks well with support from persons or objects, and has climbed stairs successfully. Has a bit of a funny leg-dragging crawl because she likes to push off with one leg.
Music: Loves to dance by shaking her shoulders and head, loves to pound on drums or other things that make noise.
Food: Still not real picky, but she loves mangoes, tomatoes and peas.
Sleep: She sleeps through the night and is happiest with about 3 hours of nap time, usually a shorter nap in the morning and longer in the afternoon.
Teeth: Just two bottom teeth so far, but a top one is just starting to show up.
People: She is very observant. She takes a little time to warm up to most people, but enjoys playing and will warm up almost immediately to other children.

Day 104: Singing Maria

Here's Emil, Maria and Zaria all playing the piano at the same time. Yes, they made beautiful music together.
And Maria, the musically-named and always cute 2-year-old. We celebrated her birthday with her today, though her birthday is the 6th. She and Zaria have a good time together.

Day 103: Cards and cookies

Zaria enjoyed some birthday cards she got in the mail today.
And at FNG, Aidan helped me out by making sure I didn't forget my snowman cookie cutter.

Day 97: Shawna, Phil and lots of frogs!

Above is Zaria admiring the amazing frog collection of Shawna's. She thought it was very cool and enjoyed touching several fuzzy frogs. Below is Phil and Shawna, who celebrated their November birthdays a bit late this year by having a turkey and a bunch of friends over with potluck items. It was really fun! Mostly FNG folks, but also several other friends of Phil & Shawna's that we got to meet. Phil was a bit camera shy and hid behind some flowers.