We have internet again!!

We have been on media overload lately. We got a free month of digital cable with our internet and Dan now has his xbox 360 so we have all been wandering around trying to figure out what we want to do first.

Dan has finally had a week without overtime and even a weekend off! He has been very excited about the xbox too - I have not, because I feel like I need to be taking advantage of our digital cable. :) It is funny how after you get used to not having tv really you don't miss it, but once you have time with it again you don't want to loose it. I have been very excited to have HGTV back and with our free trial we have every single channel imaginable so I have found all kinds of new exciting things - like about 8 discovery channels, fit tv (where I do yoga and belly dancing), and noggin for Raine (we like Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends).

Back to Dan's weekend off... On Saturday Raine and I went to a farmer's market and got the best Chai tea, some honey just out of the hive and I got a really neat necklace made of wood with an amethyst stone. Dan stayed home to play xbox. Then we went to a birthday BBQ at Dan's friend James' house. Dan had a lot of fun, relaxing, talking, drinking, eating. Raine had a tone of fun too, she played and played - she stayed up until 10:30pm. She played on their son's playhouse and on his 2 tire swings. She had so much fun we are now in the process of making our own tire swing. I wish I would have gotten pictures of that, but it was dark by then and I was too worried about her falling off to think about a camera. On Sunday we went to an "aquatic center" almost a mini water park. We all had a lot of fun. Raine LOVED it. She played all over and of course wanted to do everything by herself. She went under for a second a couple times and didn't even care (while I was hyperventilating pulling her up - Dan just said, "she's fine, she held her breath").

The rest of the week has been pretty uneventful - except for the 109 degree weather...

I hope all of you are are happy and healthy and that we will get to see you sometime soon. With love - Verna, Dan, Raine and MoDog

Busy, busy, busy

I don't know where to begin. I should be keeping a list of the fun things I want to share with you. I will just have to try to remember it all for now. We are still waiting on our internet, so Raine and the kids I nanny for are all here at Imagination Ave. So that I can use the internet while they play.

We got Raine a potty chair a few weeks ago so she has been sitting on that most mornings after she gets up and sometimes during the day. She put pee in it the first time she sat on it and I was all excited for her and the next time she used it nothing and so I told her good try and she was wondering where the excited happy dance went. She loves flushing the toilet too, I let her flush it if we empty her potty into it. Raine and I went with our old neighbor to the global festival a few weeks ago and had a tone of fun! We learned a lot about other cultures, Raine got to drink coconut juice right out of a coconut, she got to build her own bird house, she got to play all kinds of fun world instruments, and we got to talk to some Australians. Raine loves playing in her yard with Mo and playing in her little pool.

Raine and I went to the Asian festival a few weekends ago and bought some baby turtles who are totally cute. Dan has named them Bill and Ted.

This last weekend Dan bought and xbox 360 and a bike for Raine so they are both happy! Raine gets so excited every time she sees bikes she loves to look at them in the store and she will try to take them if a kid gets off of one. So, Dan found one and couldn't resist. She is too funny on it because she is still too small to reach the pedals but she loves to sit on it and turn the handle bars. Dan is so excited about the xbox he plays every second he gets. It is a good thing we only have 3 fuzzy channels or I would be sad I was missing out on something good on tv.

Well, the kids need me to play with them, so that will have to be all for now. We love and miss you all. Enjoy the photos.

We Moved!

Sorry it has been a while since our last post. We have been moving! We are finally pretty much all moved in. We have been arranging furniture, unpacking and hanging pictures. I think the new place will work out nicely. I won’t be posting again for a few weeks because we are waiting for our internet to be hooked up. Raine and I are at a place called Imagination Ave – it is a really cute indoor play town for kids. They have wireless internet so I’m trying to get all of the stuff done that I haven’t been able too. I thought it would be super easy because last time we came with the kids I watch and they really could have cared less if I was there or not – today however they want me to be right were they can see me (I was sitting in the little café here that is gated in, where I am completely visible but apparently I need to be out in the play town with them).

Dan informed me that I needed to get some pictures of the new house up on the blog – so I took a bunch of pictures this morning. I’ll warn you, it is pretty messy right now. Raine’s room is pretty cute, it is neat to see her have her own space. We love her new dragon blanket from Grammy Tami! She also sent Raine a little stuffed dragon which is the cutest thing, I don’t know if you can see that in the pics but it’s on her bed. Raine was so excited about her room. As soon as we got her bed in there and everything set up you could tell she relaxed a bit because she knew we lived there. She has been a little stressed out lately.

Well, I really don’t know what else to tell you, my mind has been all over the place lately, so I don’t really know what’s going on. I will post again when we get internet and by then I will have some pictures of a neat and put together house to share with you. I also need to stock up on pictures of Raine because I have been neglecting that lately. Talk to you soon!

Moving

Dan took some video of our new house today after we unloaded some stuff. It is very messy with everything right now but you get the idea. We will do a video after we get all moved in too, so you can really see it. Our camera only does 30 second video so that is why there are 2. It is small and not perfect but I think we will make it a nice place to live. Raine and Mo already seem to like it a lot. I showed Raine her room with her toys and she was very excited to play and shut the door on me. Apparently she needed some alone time. She also loves the backyard, which means I will have to get over having a clean baby. I don't know why but I get a little stressed out or anxious when she gets dirty and want to clean her up right away. Yesterday while she and I were there she literally rolled in the dirt. I have cards with our new address to send out to everyone, I just need to get some stamps... so hopefully I'll get those out tomorrow. We will probably be moved in this coming weekend. I will be so glad when we are finally in and things settle down. I thing Raine will be too, she has been very clingy lately and we decided that maybe it is stressing her out to not really know what is going on. Today I was loading things into the vehicles with her strapped to my back because she just wouldn't be anywhere that wasn't touching me.

Raine has been learning so much. She now knows her head, belly, belly button, toes and sometimes her eyes and nose. She will wipe her face and nose if you give her a wipe and ask her too, she will go and sit on her changing pad when you tell her it's time for a diaper change, she will get her jammies out of her drawer when asked and today she helped me make strawberry/blueberry pancakes. She put all the berries in and tried to stir (which ended with batter all over her, but she had fun and it kept her busy). Oh, and she loves to take things to daddy, if she finds something that she knows is Dan's she takes it to him right away, or if I ask her to take him something she runs it to him. She also loves to shut doors, which I have discovered is not as good as I thought. She sometimes shuts herself in dark rooms, yesterday she kept shutting me out of the new house when I came up with hands full of boxes, and today the poor girl shut her thumb in a door. I just can't believe how fast she is growing up!

Dan is still working like crazy, but he is doing really well. He was trying to quit smoking a few weeks ago and he did so well for almost a month - he was only having like one cigarette some days, but doing so much overtime he gave up the quiting for now. He will give it another try soon I think. I was so proud of him, he was doing very well! I think it will be easier when he tries again too because we will be in a new house and he won't have a smoking buddy anymore. I am hoping that work will slow down for him soon so he can get a break and relax for a while.

I have still been babysitting for the 2 families. One family is very occasionally and the other is 5 days a week. It is so nice to have the extra money and it is even nice to be doing something for a few hours a day. It gets me out of the house, even if it is to hang out with other kids. It's funny because when I was just home with Raine all week I really wanted to get out of the house and do stuff on the weekends and poor Dan being at work all week really just wanted to hang out at home. So, having this job lets me appreciate being home a little more, I'm not so stir crazy. Raine really likes the other kids, so it is pretty fun for her. This last Friday we babysat the occasional family that I have been watching for a few years now and we all had a good time, the kids are 4(almost 5) and 3. The oldest is a girl and the younger is a boy and Raine thought it was so neat to have a big girl around. She just loved playing with the kids and their toys and just watching them, sometimes copying what they were doing. It was too cute. The kids really enjoyed her too, which I was thankful for because back in December when I watched them they were very stressed out that she was touching their toys.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!!

Raine went to her first Easter egg hunt today. We got a flyer from a church down the street that was having a community egg hunt. It was pretty cute. Raine carried her basket around all morning, while we were at home I put her shaker eggs in her basket and told her we were going to find eggs and put them in her basket, then Dan gave her a pep talk on how to find eggs and off we went. She was too cute, she saw some eggs and right away picked up a few eggs and put them in her basket. Then she took them out, carried them around, put them back in her basket, took them out again, and then she figured out how to open them - so she opened all of them. She was so excited when she found the eggs, you could tell she was proud of herself.

After the egg hunt I had to go to a yoga workshop for labor/birth (which was neat and interesting, I wish it would have been around before Raine). Raine and Dan hung out together for a few hours while I was there. Dan made peanut butter, banana, honey sandwiches for the two of them for lunch. I don't think Raine was convinced that it was edible though, she wouldn't even take a bite. Silly girl, I know she would think much of the food we put in front of her is yummy if she would just taste it.

When I got home Raine and I went shopping for dinner and she was so excited because she got to push the shopping cart (they had mini carts just her size). She was a very good shopper. She pushed the cart like a pro and when I gave her something to put in the cart she did it very enthusiastically. Then she decided to pick out things on her own - if left to her own devices we would have bought a pack of mixed nuts, popcorn, chile chips, minestrone soup, and chicken broth. :) She even got to try a free sample of organic animal crackers (which she later threw up all over me).

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I hope everyone had a good St. Patrick's Day! Here is a fun link to some info about St. Patrick's day from the history channel. I enjoy learning about what we celebrate so I thought I'd share the link if you are interested. http://www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=mini_home&mini_id=1082

We had a pretty uneventful day. We all had to work today and poor little Raine is sick. (Although, she still manages to find the strength to play and be mischievous - the doctor said it must be the Irish in her.) I made my first attempt at corned beef and cabbage with potatoes and carrots yesterday. It turned out OK, it seemed like it was missing something, but it was still good. I really only wanted the left over meat to make Reuben's with anyway. :) Raine thought it was OK, she tried some bites but didn't seem to have a big appetite. She has had a fever of 102.6 the last 2 days. I feel so bad for her, she just feels like she is burning up. I was worried she had a throat infection because one of kids I babysit had that, but the Dr. said it is just some 5 day virus going around. He said other than the fever she looks great.

I was so proud of her today. She ate so well at lunch. She had some macaroni and cheese, some apple and some chicken. She loves macaroni and cheese. She gobbled up nearly all of what I gave her, which she has never done. She also did very well drinking her liquids today! Oh, to be a mom, huh? What do "normal" people get excited about? Oh, well. I think it's exciting that she is getting better about eating real food - she has also gained almost 2lbs and grown and inch this last month. She is so funny and so smart. She was very frustrated with Dan and I this morning for trying to put a cool, damp cloth on her head, but when we were leaving to go babysit I got her her little wash cloth and gave it to her damp and for the rest of the day she put it on her own head. She was so cute walking around with the cloth on her head. She would take it off and put it on or in her diaper bag and then later she would go get it and put it on.

Today Raine found her old baby swing under the bed and decided she needed in it so I reassembled it and she is now napping happily in it. It is too funny, the things she didn't really like when she was a baby she enjoys now. She loves pacifiers now (which I was afraid she would become addicted to one, just as she should be weaned from them - she's OK with out it though), now her swing and she found a bottle as I was cleaning out our diaper bag and decided she wanted to drink out of that now. Silly girl. I tried for almost a year to get her to drink from a bottle! She will get to hang out with Dan tonight while I teach yoga. They have been getting Monday nights together and I think they have fun.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

13 months going on 3 years

Raine thinks she is such a big girl now. It is cute and scary at the same time. She has quite the personality. She is definitely not afraid to tell you what she does and doesn't like.

Raine and I went with our neighbor to the Aloha Festival and Ikea this weekend. We had fun. We got to try some very tasty Hawaiian food and look at all the fun crafts. Raine really enjoyed the food, she mostly ate some rice but she tried some breaded chicken too. Her favorite part of the day was Ikea though, she got to play on all the kid furniture. She pulled out chairs and sat at tables (I don't know why she thinks tables and chairs are so fun, but she does) and she played in the tent they had set up. The all time best part of her day was when she got an ice cream cone. I was just going to let her have a lick or two but she took the whole cone from me and tried to run off with it. I had to eat the ice cream down to the cone (which she was not happy about) because she was taking her time eating it and it was dripping everywhere. She would not give up that ice cream for anything, she ended up falling asleep eating it on the way home. I took it from her when she fell asleep and when we got home and I put her down in bed she was still trying to eat it in her sleep. I wish I could have gotten a picture of that because her face was the best - asleep covered in ice cream and eating the imaginary ice cream cone in her hand. Too cute.