There's Something About Willow

She continues to make me laugh everyday. She also challenges me on a daily basis, so the joyful moments and the tear filled moments even each other out. I've been trying to 'collect' cute things that she has said or done, in the past few months, and remember them. I'm not sure how long I am supposed to remember these tidbits of cuteness...for my whole life? Until I can share them with her? I've actually been meaning to record them on this blog...and now I've probably forgotten most of them. I need to write it all down before I forget these stories! 

All photos in this post taken by the talented, Kristi Witek, in July and August 2013. 

From day one, Willow has had a strong attachment to her brother and can be very protective/possessive of him. She started calling his pacifier his 'medi' (aka: medicine) the day we left the hospital. She still calls all pacifiers medicine. I'm not sure if she thinks that pacifiers emit some sort of liquid medicine or what...

She has started crossing her arms in front of her chest, or putting her hands on her hips. Such an adolescent already. Lots of sighing too. 

Much to our surprise/amusement/horror, she has started using slang. When frustrated about dropping her special bunny on the driveway (during a road trip), she said "oh gosh" under her breath. Adam and I just looked at each other, with our eyebrows sky high. Last week, I heard her say "oh darn" when she couldn't kill a bug. The bug was actually just a light which she thought was a bug. She might have learned these from me, but she definitely learned "oh man" from her dad.

She is terrified of her minion helium baloon that she got at the school carnival two weeks ago. I have to admit, it is pretty horrifying to walk into a room and feel like someone is watching you--only to look up and fine a large-eyed yellow freak floating in the corner of the ceiling. It's nightmare material and has freaked me out in the middle of the night when I'm soothing Noah. Also freaked me out today, when the almost deflated baloon was waiting for me on the other side of my bedroom door. Nearly lost all control of my bladder. Anyway, to help conquer her fear, she has started walking around the house, holding its hand. And then punching him repeatedly. Not sure this is funny or sad. Does it make me a bad parent?

She learned how to say 'gummies' in references to her gummy vitamins. I'm not sure how she learned that word, since I've never called her vitamins gummies. She learns words like this everyday--not sure how or where, but she's a sponge for vocabulary. 

When she wants something, she proposes her idea. When we repeat her idea back to her, she says "Oh yes!" with lots of up and down movement in the pitch of her voice. It makes it sound like WE proposed the idea and not she. Example:
Willow: ice cream!
Me: you want to eat ice cream?
Willow: oh yes! oh sure. 

Happens many times, everyday. She's pretty good at persuasion.

When a friend's baby spit up, but no one noticed except for Willow---she ran over to find the baby's burp cloth and handed it to the newborn's mom. 

During bedtime one night, when I was tucking her in, she heard Noah laughing in his room. We had never heard him laugh before (Adam was playing with Noah). Her eyes lit up, she giggled, and then jumped out of bed so she could see Noah laughing for herself. She takes so much joy in his development, just like a little mom. Yesterday, when she came inside from playing outdoors with Adam, she heard Noah talking in his baby voice. It sounded a lot like "hi", so she was overjoyed and said "Noah's sayin' hi! Oh! He said hi again!" 

She talks about "Horton Hears a Who" everyday and can talk through the major points of the plot. She started doing this on her own, and I have been so surprised by this skill. I need to take a video of it, because it is priceless--and the teacher in me is so intrigued that she can already summarize a plot. 

She drops the 'g' in most words ending with '-ing'. It's pretty cute.
Willow: What are you doin', mom?
Me: Sitting here, feeding Noah. What are you doing?
Willow: Playin' toys. 

Instead of cereal with milk, she eats granola and yogurt in the morning. But she still calls it cereal. When we were making oatmeal chocolate chip cookies together, she called the rolled oats "cereal'. I thought that was pretty impressive.

Willow is finally counting correctly. The whole summer it was, "one, two, nine, ten, five, seven" etc. 

She can write a "W" and recognizes them in text all the time. She also says 'double-you'--which is pretty cute. 

Willow is currently obsessed with the baby kangaroo from a stuffed animal set. She likes to wrap it up in a blanket and carry it around all day. She burps and shushes it, gives it rides in her doll stroller, and lets it sit in Noah's bouncy seat. She also nurses her stuffed animals, burps them, cleans up their invisible spit up, and changes their diapers. None of this have I encouraged or taught her to do. 

The couch is actually an airplane or a boat, according to Willow. She is constantly navigating the sea or the sky in her vessel. 

She calls soup, "soot". 

Willow expects Adam to take her to the market everyday after he returns home from school. She brings little kuai coins in her coat pocket so that she can ride the mechanical airplanes and cars outside of the shop. She also expects to eat a snack on the way home (like bread rolls or yogurt), and throws away the garbage in the trashcan outside our apartment building before she comes back inside. 

She asks for a drink every night, and places her sippy cup on the ledge of her headboard. It's the perfect sippy cup shelf, in her mind.

Willow loves to interact with Noah, and whenever his eyes are open she exclaims, "eyes ope!" That's right. No 'n' sound. 

 

She has been known to cover Noah up with his burp cloths so that he isn't cold. She wants him to try everything that she can do. Her favorite way to hold him lately, is on her shoulders. Either Adam or I will hold Noah steady as Willow walks (or runs) around the apartment with her brother on her shoulders. She asks, "Hold Noah on shoulders" everyday. It's slightly annoying, but also funny. 

The stool that I use in the kitchen and laundry room (because I'm too short to reach anything) is what she now considers her personal property. She's constantly tearing into the kitchen to retrieve the stool so that she can reach what she wants. 

Willow can finally say Tommy's name--and doesn't have to call him TT anymore. She remembers that TT made her smoothies and that Emma made her coffee--and that the coffee maker was very loud. She remembers that she took rides on tractors, rhinos, gators, and combines. She remembers feeding Jake and Elwood treats and telling them to 'get down' or to sit. She remembers all her grandparents and aunts and uncles too! We talk about our memories from our time in America everyday. 

One of her favorite things to do is put on excessive amounts of chapstick. All over her whole face. "I'm pretty, mom. OOh, pretty!" 

Willow takes so much pleasure in playing with Noah. She likes to make him smile and thinks his little hands and feet are cute. Whenever she thinks something is cute or small she calls it a 'noah'. She also says "it's a tute little noah" and touches her fingers in front of her face while she squints her eyes.

It's been fun taking care of a baby (Noah) and a toddler--who is somewhere between acting like a big kid and yet still my baby. She definitely keeps me entertained all day. She made a train with orange slices today and was jumping around saying "choo choo". She reviewed the principles of sharing this morning, before her friends came over for a play group--"sharing's nice. Kids playin' toys. My toys." 

There's so many cute things I could write about. Like how she checks my ears very carefully in the morning to see if I'm wearing earrings or not. How she snuggles with me in the morning, or asks for a kiss and song before naps. I could also write about how she's sneaky, devious, and disobedient. How she can be too rough, or make huge messes without meaning to. How she struggles with sharing, and hates bedtime routines. I could write about how she's addicted to technology, and can do more on the ipad than I can. Or how she acts out with hunger strikes and refuses to eat more than a bite or two at each meal. She hates wearing baggy clothes and asks for 'tight pants'. What the heck?!

No one can have a dance party like Willow, that's for sure. And her back massages are the hilarious. It feels like a mouse is running on my shoulders.

If there is an art to being cute, crazy, and full of life--Willow is definitely learning to wield it's power. This is a long post...but I really love my little two-year-old and I don't want to forget her at this fun age! Some of my favorite things about Willow right now:  when she looks at Adam, me, or Noah and says, "I love you."; when she sings "10,000 Reasons" with Adam at bedtime (hearing their voices together melts my heart!); her sincere hugs, crazy giggles, and her sass and energy!

 

1 & 2

Noah turned 2 months yesterday, and I'm finally getting around to his 1 month milestone post. Might as well throw in his 2 month post too. Actually, it's late, and I'm trying to make sleep more of a priority. Let's just let the pictures do the talking. Sorry, Noah. But sleep deprivation has really started to take its toll after 9 weeks of caring for you + the sleepless nights I experienced in the last month of pregnancy.

You are so cute. We love you. 

Three-Fifths of the Picture

This picture was taken earlier this year, I think in April (?). Our team had a record of 5 pregnant mamas at the same time! We took a picture together, and are standing in order of our due dates.

 Now, four of those babies are born (though one is in Americ, now). Just waiting for the fifth baby...although now there is also a sixth baby on the way. Another friend on our team has just announced she is pregnant! 

The funny thing is, since we moved here in 2009, there has always been someone on our team who is pregnant. At least one lady has always been pregnant. As soon as she delivers, you hear of another pregnancy! I was trying to count the number of babies since 2009, and I think it's around 15...(?) Plus, many families also have taken care of foster babies. Considering the size of our team, we have quite a lot of babies and small children. 

Here are the babies (three-fifths of them anyway), outside of the womb!
They're sitting in birth order. The baby who is in America, should be sitting between Noah and Nora.

Noah is about 7 weeks.
Nora is about 2 weeks.
Elisha is about 1 week

I think I am correct on those ages....

Dear Daddy, Come Home

I intercepted this letter from Willow to her dad. Adam is in Beijing (Saturday morning--Tuesday  night) for a teaching conference. 

Dear Daddy,

 Please come home. You've been gone for three days, and I don't know why. When I go to bed at night, you tuck me in and sing songs with me. We read about the moon, and you make sure I have my favorite stuffed kitties and bunnies. But then I wake up and mom says you're at 'school'.

It seems like you've been at school for awhile! When are you coming back? I like to call your cell phone and talk with on speaker phone. I am just so crazy! I like to ask you what you're doing, and I'm usually eating eggs or watching a movie or something.

Dad, when you're not here, mom has to clean up all my messes, feed me, play with me, change my diapers, take me outside, wash my face and brush my teeth. She has to do all those things for Noah too.

Today, I got in trouble because I was being disobedient. I wouldn't go inside to eat lunch. I told mom "no" and to go away. When she told me to eat my snack of applesauce at the table, I sat on the couch instead. She didn't know right away, because she was still in the kitchen--so I decided the couch would be prettier with applesauce all over it. The carpet too. So I got in trouble two times today.

I almost got in trouble three times, but I think mom was too tired to be consistent. I put cheese all over the place. It looked good. I painted the table with ice cream. That also looked good. I'm an artist, but mom keeps destroying my work.

I met some kids outside today. One girl gave me lots of Hello Kitty stickers. I went down the slide with a little boy. We also screamed as loud as we could, and hit the road with sticks. I saw a baby and a girl and tried to get them to play with me, but it didn't work out. I got to pet some puppies. They had freakish teeth, so they made me nervous. I told them to "Get Down!" like I learned on the farm, but they didn't understand English.

Dad, tonight I didn't get to read a book before bed. Noah was screaming, so mom sang a song really fast and that was it. Huff.

Did I tell you that I only like to hold Noah if he has a clean diaper? If he has a poopy diaper, I make mom change it first. Poop is gross. Except my poop isn't gross.

Every time the phone rings, I think it's you that's calling. Every time I hear someone walk into our building, I think that it might be you. I want to set a place at the table for you too, but I guess you can eat where you are right?

Dad, don't forget to get the moon for me. I almost have that book memorized. So I can read it by myself, but really it would be better if you read it to me. Mostly, I miss you playing with me. Mom doesn't know how to be crazy and wild and she isn't as fun as you are. She is so boring.

When you get back, we're going to have a dance party.

Love you,

Willow

Willow, reading her favorite book 

26.

Birthday Thoughts

Last week, I turned 26 years old. It was one of those uneventful days, in that I spent the majority of my time changing diapers and wiping spit-up off my shirt. But I am learning to find joy in those seemingly mundane, tiresome, gross tasks. These little people have added many blessings to my life.

As a brand new mom, I used to pray that the days would go by faster. I was so bored or tired or exacerbated by being a stay-at-home mom. Even though I've always loved this role, sometimes I just wanted a break! Okay, honestly, I always want a break. This constant need-for-a-break leaves me feeling lazy...but breaks are awesome. Life was SLOW.

Now, caring for an infant with many needs while I have a toddler with many demands has lead to non-stop action. There's rarely time for housework, sleep, or any kind of down time.

The days go by FAST. Every year, time seems to grow shorter.

At 26 years old, with two little ones, I pray not that time would go by fast (because I need a break!), but that I would be able soak in the joy of each moment. I don't want time to slow down or stop. I don't want my babies to stay babies forever. I want them to grow up and move-on with their own lives (sniff, sniff!). What I really want is the wisdom to find peace and joy in each present moment.

Wow. Both of my kids just woke up at the same time. Two crying kids...I'm already being put to the test with my lofty aspirations of finding joy in each moment.

I know I fail at this ambition often. But the times when I have been able to enjoy life unconditionally, time doesn't seem too slow or too fast. It seems just right.

Sorry to be gross, but I had to go get my screaming baby....and this is how he thanked me. Real life testing out my recently typed idealism mid-post: this is real life.

Birthday Happenings

My birthday started like other days: battling Willow to a) eat breakfast, and b) eat at the table and not the couch. Also....the lighting in our apartment makes all the pictures look weird.

Willow and I baked pumpkin dream cupcakes with maple cinnamon cream cheese frosting. It took forever with my very helpful helper. Adam bought a kitchen aide mixer from some departing friends this summer. He totally surprised me with this purchase! How fitting that I used it for the first time on my birthday. I didn't think about the perfection of that until afterwards--it was a great present to have smooth frosting without breaking my arm. I was in shock with how easy it was...cutting down the mixing time by an hour, I am sure.

I look forward to using this mixer a lot!

We made these for my birthday, but also for the group of friends that comes over every Tuesday.
I didn't get a picture of all the completed cupcakes, or of the delicious chocolate cake with creamcheese frosting (also made from scratch) that Adam had a friend bake for me. Adam is full of surprises! Thank you for the cake, Kirstin. If you are reading this, I could have eaten the whole cake.

Besides being the first person to tell me happy birthday, in the middle of the night when Noah was crying...Adam also gave me jewelry. He thinks of everything.
The earrings and necklace are the gemstone for Noah's birth month. Last year, Adam gave me earrings with Willow's birthstone.

It was super hard to take these pictures since we have terrible lighting in our apartment. I couldn't really manage a good picture of the earrings. And I couldn't decide which picture of the beautiful necklace to share...so...