Life around our house is crazy these days. We're basically in survival mode. Make it through each day in order to get to the next one. Maybe that's too harsh, but after a day of early morning seminary preparation (that being, before early morning seminary) starting at around 4:30am, work, play time with Bub, putting Bub to bed, dinner (notice the order there), beginning to prep for the next day's seminary lesson, falling asleep on couch with my arm over my eyes at around 8pm, and at some point draggin myself up to bed. Add to this Annalise's hectic day of taking care of the house, a 2-month old and energetic but easily bored 3-year old, and we were/are in serious need of a date. So yesterday we tried. Here's how it went:

3:15pm Called Courtney to see if she could come play with Bub for a little while. Agreed on about 4:30pm

4:30pm: Received text from Courtney saying she'll be there around 5pm

5:22pm: Courtney arrives

5:23pm: Elisabeth gets put in her carseat quietly and without incident

5:25pm: Elisabeth starts screaming from the back seat and refuses to be comforted by sucking on Annalise's finger (from the front seat). Concurrently, I am trying to navigate Commercial St. in rush hour traffic trying to find a store that closes at 6pm.

5:39pm: Elisabeth still screaming, me still driving on Commercial St (we've now doubled back twice, sat for a combined 6 minutes at three stoplights and still have no idea where the store is). Annalise takes the opportunity to jump into the back seat from the front to try to calm Elisabeth, but to no avail.

5:42pm: Abandoned hope of finding the store. Pulled into the Fred Meyer parking lot where Annalise nursed Elisabeth (in the back seat). Silence at last.

5:46pm: Four minutes of silence pass. Nothing to talk about? or both of us just enjoying the silence? Actually both. All week long we've felt like we haven't gotten a chance to talk at all about anything and now given the chance, we're both good to go. No concerns, questions or anything of the sort for the other.

5:47pm: Annalise: Do you want to go walk around Fred Meyer? Rychen: Sure.

6:14pm: Left Fred Meyer after walking aimlessly around for approx 30 minutes. "Tested" the microfiber sectional in the furniture section (approved by both of us by the way) and contemplated putting a huge picture of a bear on our wall (next to the huge picture of a moose of course, also available).

6:29pm: Arrive at home at the end of our "date."

Elisabeth 2

Wow, so professional looking!

Thanks again to Rachelle!

Elisabeth

A sweet acquaintance of mine asked if she could take some photos of Elisabeth to practice her photography with a new camera. I jumped at the opportunity!!

First date

Today we had a "first date" playdate with some friends. Wow, they have such a fun yard! Tons of toys - play kitchen, slide, basketball, cars to drive, trucks in the dirt, baby strollers, you name it. Rychen didn't play with the other kids much but he sure loved all of the above! But my favorite part was the toys for me--mint, oregano, cilantro, basil, fig tree, peach tree, currant tomatoes, kale, collards, artichoke........you can imagine my delight! I am so glad to have this friend and not just because I get free food. She is way cool and we had some great conversation--ayurvedic therapy, yoga, nutrition, raw foods, gardening, green smoothies, yeah. Good stuff.

Construction Trucks!

We have been lovin' construction trucks lately. There's a firestation under construction about a mile from here, so every day we've been taking a walk up there to go watch them work. Rychen P. tells me the names of each truck, and I tell him, "It's cold, let's go now." We are also seeing trucks almost every day at another place....a secret place...

8 weeks

My little girl is getting old enough that I am going to have to start giving her age in months. That is a big step!! No, I think I will keep using weeks. I will get confused stares from strangers when they ask how old, and I say "35 weeks" ha ha!

I had a baby shower a few weeks ago and they went in on a jogging stroller for me. I've used it for taking walks (Rychen in the stroller, Elisabeth in the Moby) but just today I tried jogging. Didn't work. The same neurosis that prevents her from being happy in the carseat is also preventing her from being happy in the stroller. *sigh* Gotta try changing up some factors, like when she is either in a deep sleep (which rarely happens) or if she is wide awake and perky. Today she was tired and grumpy, so of course the odds were already against me.

Yeah, did I mention she's a bear in the carseat? I am avoiding all errands unless my chauffer (aka husband) drives and I can sit next to her. We are going on lots of walks though.

I have been saying how she is a light sleeper and has to be next to me, but I finally "figured out" -- or shall I say REMEMBERED, *duh* that you have to leave a sleeping baby GRADUALLY in order for them to stay asleep. Ahh!! So I finally left her laying in bed and crept away. Nice.

Fun playing around

"Uno" has become a daily favorite in our house. And somehow it squeaked into our bed routine. (Joy! We were just looking for something to make that whole thing a bit longer)


Here is Rychen playing with our friend Nechama. It is really fun that they have such a playful relationship--Nechama basically got me through his birth. She ended up at his birth due to a misunderstanding (I had asked for no students) but as it turned out, she was the perfect labor support, and I have bonded with her ever since. So now she is a fun "big sister" type for Rychen, she is so incredible!

Scootin' Tootin' machine

So yeah, Elisabeth can roll over and scoot across the floor. She is just such a wiggle worm, that she inches around inadvertently! It's quite common to find her in a different spot than where you left her, but today I took my eyes off her for 5 minutes and she completely disappeared! I had to get up, and I found her cornerned and rolled over! (Reminds me of how we'd find Esio Trot, our pet tortoise, scraping the corner of his box, and when he tried to climb up the wall, he'd flop over onto his back.) She had inched forward about 3 feet. Also, she rolls from her tummy over to her back a few times a day. I don't know if she does it on purpose or if its just a result of her constant squirming.

Hello from Elisabeth herself!

Here are some little lopsided smiles for you!! Is it just me, or is she just completely sweet and adorable? She is 7 weeks now! 9 1/2 lbs.

T-ball & T-ter toter

Here are some shots from playing at the park (these are two different days, two different parks, different friends).



And here, we play Tee-ball at Myers playground.

Nyman's visit

Laura (my sister), Jon & Millie stayed with us for a week while they did some Oregon sight-seeing. I would have loved to get out more, but long car rides just aren't Elisabeth's idea of fun. So we hung out a lot, and I showed them the Oregon experience of farmers markets, U-picks, Silver Falls, Star of India restaurant, and La Hacienda Real.




OK let me explain this one. I introduced Laura to EC and now we are both doing it with our babies. "Elimination Communicaton" is where you watch your baby for signs of when they have to pee, and instead of soiling a diaper, you sit them on the potty. It's an alternative to full-time diapering which saves a lot of money/laundry. I will tell you, it's awesome not having much laundry to do, and we use about 3 disposables per week (I put her in a diaper when we leave the house and changing a cloth isn't practical). That is not even enough to buy a Costco pack of diapers in a single size before they are on to the next. Laura is fully devoted and does really well keeping Millie dry, even out in public! But I do it mostly for fun right now (obviously it gets harder, the more kids you have, and the more waking hours you have with the baby). Anyway I thought this pictures is cute, both babies using the potty together!!






Everytime I put Elisabeth down, Jon would pick her up. So I asked him about this, "Why do you always pick her up?" I was wondering if he had some rule about babies on the floor, and maybe I was being a bad mom or something. But he just said "I don't know." I guess he is *fond* of Elisabeth! ha!! So I handed her to him here to take a cute picture of Jon the Baby Man. (and is it just me, or does it look like Millie is nursing on him? ha ha!)






I had a lot of fun being around Millie - last time I saw her, she was only 2 months old (and her name was Amelia!) She is only 8 months older than Elisabeth, but when you are that young, it's lightyears ahead. She was always trying to get at the little baby, poking her, etc!! Give them a few years and they'll be best pals.






We took them to Silver Falls. Laura & Jon are big hikers. We did our best with a little "nature walk" and quick sight-seeing of the falls. It was cool for Laura & I to both be wearing our babies. I even nursed Elisabeth in the sling while hiking! Sometime I want to go back to hike the full 6 mile loop.

Laura has a degree in Geology, so she showed us some cool things on the walls of the canyon. Well, at least she showed ME. The guys were busy being crazy and putting their lives in danger, down in the canyon.




Now there are 4 Gremlich grandchildren, all equally spaced: Rychen Parker Jones (3 years old), Ethan Erick Gremlich (2 years), Amelia Gisele Nyman (9 months), and Elisabeth Diane Jones (6 weeks). Who is going to be next??? :)

Elisabeth is 6 weeks old!

Everybody loves a good nakey picture. Isn't this precious?