Yay for moving!/Louise update

     We're moving to another apartment in Evanston at the end of April and we can hardly wait.  It will be such a relief.  The new place has central heating and air (a huge plus!) so we'll pay a fraction of what we pay for utilities now, but we'll actually be comfortable, it has a washer and dryer in the unit, so no more trips down 3 flights of slippery stairs with laundry and a toddler to the coin operated laundry in the basement, it has a parking garage so we'll have a guaranteed space (no more parking blocks away), it's smaller which will also make it warmer in the winter, and best of all...IT'S CLEAN!  I'm so excited. :)

     We're just subletting the apartment we're in now, so we never really were planning on staying here for a long time, but after seeing it and living in it for 8 months we're definitely ready to move on.  This next apartment will be much more permanent.  We'll possibly be here in Chicago for at least 8 years.  Since this is a fairly permanent move for us (we'll be there longer than we've been anywhere else), I'm finally going to get to decorate.  I've got Louise's room all figured out, but I have no ideas for anything else.  For her room I'm going to paint all 4 walls aqua blue (so if our next child is a boy it will be ok), with a coral stencil over the top of one.  I'm going to paint her crib white or grey, find a dresser/changing table on Craigslist and paint it white or grey, find a storage cube organizer thing and paint it white, and all of the linens and accents will be coral.  I got some coral damask curtain from the '70s and some old aqua and coral floral fabric from my mom that I'm going to use.  I'll attach the inspiration pictures:

Except instead of the picture wall I want to do something like this:

This is the stencil I would do in coral:

Now for the fun stuff. :)

Louise is almost 17 months old.  She has the funnest big personality.  I originally wrote little, but her personality is anything but little. :)  

She has this sassy little walk where she pokes her adorable little tummy out and struts like she owns the place, which I guess she pretty much does.  

She babbles incessantly and looks at you expectantly like you should know exactly what she said and have an appropriate response.  

If you're doing anything besides giving her your undivided attention she will grab your hand (she's very particular about grabbing different fingers at different times and will adjust until she gets the finger she wants) and pull you up from your seat, across the room, until you're standing in front of the big mirror.  Then she'll proceed to grin and make funny faces at you in the mirror.  Or she'll stare at you and tilt her head like "what in the world could possibly be more important than entertaining this cute face?"  We love it. :)  

If you're in the kitchen or somewhere facing away from her and she wants your attention she'll pull and shove on your pants and legs hard until you're facing her, then she'll grab your hand and go to the mirror.  Or twirl.  Or reach up to be lifted.  

She is so expressive and such a good communicator.  We almost always know exactly what she wants.  

She LOVES dancing (totally a Nuckles thing) and dances no matter what kind of music is playing (and that chick has moves!).  

She can sign a few things, but she's learning to say words very quickly.  One of the first words she said was "ready?"  

She loves all fruits and vegetables and would eat only them for every meal if I'd let her.  

She absolutely loves to be outside, which is unfortunate since it's so cold and snowy out right now.  She always grabs the keys and stands by the front door looking at us expectantly.  

She is SO social.  When we go on walks we let her decide where we go and she just toddles around following and talking to dogs and people who cross our path (we never get far, but we walk a lot).  She yells "HI!!!" and waves at people and especially dogs from blocks away.

She's very into giving kisses (not on demand, however) and even says a dramatic "mmoowaaaaa" with each one.  She likes to give hugs, too, but then she doesn't want to seem overly affectionate, so she gives a loving shove afterward to ward off any rumors (see video below). 

She likes to stand in the windowsill and watch the passersby.  She gets really excited and laughs when dogs go by.  Every time daddy leaves she stands there and waves and blows kisses until he's out of sight.  Then she waves and blows kisses to everyone else. :)

She's very sensitive about when she thinks she has hurt other people's feelings or when she thinks she's being made fun of. 

She has 3 distinct cries: 

     (1) her "complain" cry, which isn't really a cry, just a...well, complaint. 

     (2) her "mad/offended" cry, which has furrowed eyebrows. 

     (3) her "embarrased/hurt feelings" cry.  This is the one that comes with the pouty lip.

She hates diaper changes.  Hates them.  I'm hoping this will improve when we get an actual changing table.    

She still takes 2 solid 2 hour naps every day.  I was afraid a few weeks ago that she was transitioning to 1, but it turned out she was just getting 2 molars in, poor thing.  It didn't even occur to me that it could be teeth, because she's never had trouble before.

Her hair is finally starting to fill in, it's just white blond so you still can't see it. :)  I love her sweet curls.

I've had a really hard time getting pictures of her lately because one, the camera on my iPod, which I normally use doesn't work very well anymore and I can't ever find our real camera and the charger for it at the same time, and two, she LOVES all things technology and if she sees it, she must have it.

She inherited her father's love of being in small spaces and seizes any opportunity she sees.  

   

  

      

       

Cutie Patootie!

We had a wonderful Christmas.  Louise was thoroughly spoiled between her aunt, cousins, and grandparents. :)  Books, crayons (she LOVES them), hand puppets, dolls, and sweet little hand-knitted mittens and hat from her Nana.  Justin and I got her some warm pajamas.  I was spoiled too, for that matter.  Justin and I have been justifying buying things that we really need as "it's for Christmas" for a few months now.  :)  First we got two chairs off of Craigslist in October, so we can now comfortably sit 4 people instead of just two on the love seat (the home teachers were glad).  Then we got our winter gear: coats, gloves, boots, and hats from an awesome thrift store and Sierra Trading Post so we can live here during the winter.  Then in November we got an ErgoBaby carrier, that has totally changed our lives.  Well, maybe not quite that drastic, but it has made life SO much easier.  Louise is at the stage where she wants to be independent, but doesn't like the prospect very much, so she would walk right in front of me and hold her adorably chubby little arms out, begging me to hold her all day, making it nearly impossible to get anything done (how can I refuse that?).  With the Ergo I can very comfortably carry her any of the 3 ways and she is quite content to snuggle with me and watch what I'm doing.  We love how cozy and snuggly it is.  We say often how we wish we would have gotten an Ergo in the first place instead of the cheap carrier we got that was uncomfortable for all involved.  We also got the infant insert with the Ergo, so we can use this from birth to age 2 (or 45 lbs.).  We seriously use it several times every day.  Best purchase ever.  Then we got a pot rack to hang on the wall since we don't have much cupboard space and had been keeping our pots and pans in a box on the floor for months.  That was also a wonderful purchase.  So all of this was supposed to be our Christmas, but Justin spoiled me and got me a new blouse and pair of nice jeans.  My old "nice" jeans had 2 huge rips in the crotch that I had tried to patch and repair unsuccessfully, so I really needed a new pair.  I LOVE my new pair.  They finally got here today.  It's my first pair of skinny jeans and I feel so good in them.  Justin's Christmas was a little boring-I felt bad.  He got a collection of Grimm's fairy tales, and about 25 books that he'll need for school this semester.  He promised me he was excited about it.

After we opened presents it started to snow, so we went out (in our winter gear!) and played in the fresh snow.  Louise didn't know what to think. :)  We went to the little park next to our house and she just stood there for about 2 minutes.  She'd never seen snow before!  Justin and I would walk around and tell her to come play with us, but she just stood there.  Finally we took her hands and pulled her a few steps which seemed to convince her it was ok and she was off!  We've gone out several times since then and she really loves it, but her boots are faux suede (not winter boots) and are always soaked when we finish, so I'm afraid she freezes.  We need to find her some real winter boots and snow pants (surprisingly hard to come by here).

I've been getting really crafty lately, which is entirely out of character for me.  I made 2 valances for Louise's room, a quiet book, a Christmas card book, a maxi dress without a pattern, made some old high water jeans into cute skinny jeans, made some cinnamon chips since they don't sell them in stores here and attempted some cinnamon chip bread like Great Harvest's (you just can't compete with Great Harvest), some cute lace boot sock things...I don't remember what else.  Here are some pictures of a few of them.

             

I gave a talk in church last Sunday.  It was kind of scary.  I used to talk all the time, but I realized that it has been almost 3 years since I talked last.  It went well.

I think that's about it.  Louise and I have thoroughly enjoyed having Justin home and all to ourselves the last couple of weeks, but it's back to the grinding stone on Monday.  He's already started on the readings.

Curls. 

This girl loves her food. :)

I'm so excited to go home next week and see my family and friends, while at the same time really not wanting to leave Justin.  The longest we've ever been apart is 5 days for his Napa trip.  I'm worried about Louise not understanding what's going on since we'll be gone for 2 weeks.  Oh well.  Thank heaven for FaceTime, eh?

Louise at 13 months

Louise is practically running everywhere.  We love it.  Lately she's really into making faces.  She'll pout and really jut her bottom lip out there one second and grin as big as she can the next.  And she's such a little ham.  She LOVES strangers and other people and has no compunctions against going up to anyone and asking them to pick her up or sit on their lap.  We had our first visit with her new doctor here and she was a little surprised by how not-shy Louise was.  She toddled right up to her, reached for her lap, and started playing with her stethoscope and earrings and face.  We also found out she's now in the 90th percentile for height and 77th for weight (a big jump from the 15th and 5th percentiles she was in a few months ago).

Life as we know it is racing onward.  We can't believe how quickly time is going by.  It feels like we just barely had a baby, and here we are with a 1 year-old living halfway across the country.  She's not a little baby anymore.  She's a toddler, through and through.  Justin says he can see a lot of my personality in her.  The "I want to do it my way, by myself, and no one can stop me" part of my personality. ;)  But that's ok.  I'm kind of excited for when she's a teenager.

She is extremely independent already.  It's adorable.  If I want to put a headband on her, it has to be her idea first, otherwise it gets torn off in seconds.  I'll show it to her and let her play with it, let her try to put it on herself, then when she can't she'll hand it to me.  Then, and only then, I can help her put it on and she'll leave it.  Same with the rest of her clothes.  

Louise is really into wearing things on her neck lately.  It doesn't matter what it is, if she can get it to stay across her shoulders she'll walk very gingerly "wearing" it until if falls off or she finds something new.  This morning it was a pair of pants draped very carefully across her shoulders, yesterday it was a lens cleaning cloth.  She also loves wearing rings on her wrists.  We have a Magic Bullet knock-off that has a bunch of rings that snap onto the top of the cups and she almost always has a few of them on both arms, or her colored rings that stack on the yellow cone things.  She's way into carrying around my shoes, too.  Usually sparkly flats, high heels, or boots.  Total girl. :)   

These days, when she's getting into something she knows she shouldn't, she looks at us and shakes her head while purposefully doing whatever she shouldn't.  *Sigh*  We're working on it.  Maybe in a few years she'll get it. ;)

Louise talks non-stop.  I'll have to record some of it.  She's very deliberate and articulate in her gibberish.  She loves the L and D sounds and is constantly throwing around sounds that involve them.  She likes to "read" us stories.  She's a very clear communicator and is great at letting us know what she needs.  She has a very expressive face, like her daddy.

She's still an unbelievable eater and sleeper.  She eats everything we eat.  We have our big meal for lunch instead of dinner since Justin has night classes, so we get to eat as a family almost every day.  Louise would eat fruit all day if I'd let her.  She goes to bed by 7 every night and wakes up between 7 and 8 (depending on how noisy Justin is when he gets ready for work).

We can't believe how in love with little Lulu we are, and we can't wait to see what the next 13 months hold for us. :)

"Let's get this baby off the ground"

Anybody seen that "FarSide" cartoon where the pilots are sitting on the back of a giant baby on the airport runway?  Yeah, it was weird.  But, for some reason, this was the phrase that came to me when I thought about what was most significant and different in our lives right now.  My daughter is walking!

A Sunday afternoon walk in the rain (Adorable, right?)

Does this kid not just melt your heart right out of your chest?  Maybe it's me; maybe I'm biased.  Okay, so I'm biased.  But still...  

So, she's walking.  It adds a whole lot of excitement to our household.  Now, we hear a bump in the other room where she's playing, and it's a mad dash, because you just know she either fell and hit her head, or has reached something breakable and/or valuable that she didn't used to be able to.  Either way, we come running.  Man, oh man, but we enjoy it.  There's nothing better in our lives right now than watching her take off from holding our hands, and have that adorable little face turn back toward us and flash all eight pearly whites in our general direction with a gleam in her eye.  How can we help but love that?  

Claire is amazing.  She's working full time right now: she's probably into overtime now that Louise is walking.  She keeps house like no one I know, loves our baby girl and takes care of her better than I could ever hope for, and somehow still finds time to squeeze me in (seriously, she gives great hugs).  I am a very lucky man.  She's just a great person to both have and be around.  I think she could have a great deal of very close friends here, with all the people she's met and left on friendly terms with at the park across the street from us.  However, since she also has yet to see the same person twice at the park, it hasn't worked out as well as it could.  It's so odd; even though we live in closer proximity to more people than either of us has ever experienced in our lives, it's so easy to feel like you live on your own. Even in our own apartment building (we share an entrance with two other apartments; one above and one below us), I've personally only run into the people above us coming or going maybe two or three times total, and the people below us a whopping one time each.  It's crazy.  Fortunately, Claire is much better at instigating social happenings than I am.  

Which is why, for L's first birthday party, it was more than just the three of us sharing ice cream and cake.  See for yourself:

L with our upstairs neighbors' little boy

Me, L, and Claire immediately following L's first taste of cake

The party-goers sans Claire

Ditto, sans me

We had a great birthday celebration for L.  We had the upstairs neighbors, a family from church, and a lady we've gotten to know via the more than a few times we've met her out walking her awesome dog, Quince, who was kind enough and friendly enough to accept our invitation to celebrate L's birth with us (She's smitten with L.  Really, who wouldn't be?)  It was a great party, and we had a lot of fun.  We made homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream accompanied by a french vanilla cake with homemade frosting.  Pretty great.  

Claire is heading up a pretty ambitious project right now.  She's gotten together a bunch of moms via Facebook groups and they're going to contribute a different page each to make a whole bunch of fabric "quiet books" for their children.  She's pretty excited about it, and the moms seem to share a lot of her energy, from what I've gleaned from a few over-the-shoulder glimpses of the Facebook page (Isn't technology crazy?).  

I'm working five days a week right now in the mornings, and have class three times a week in the evening.  Between those two things, I don't get nearly as much time to spend with my girls as I'd like.  However, since I would ideally spend every waking minute with them, this isn't difficult to bring about.    It is made a little bit easier in that I so very much enjoy all of my readings that I do for my classes.  Such a plus about grad school.  If you've chosen your program well, it's a whole lot easier to get things done, because you genuinely enjoy it.  

For L, I have just a few fun things to share.  First off, she loves to get into things that she really shouldn't.  That alone isn't funny or unique.  Her reaction, however, is; it's hilarious.  When we realize she's into something, say her name, and start walking toward her, she does this comical little "freak out" movement where she waves her arms really fast, shakes her head even faster, then returns to doing whatever she was doing at double speed.  It's adorable to watch.  Our favorite instance of this happened one morning when Claire was putting some clothes away, and L was in our bedroom, exploring.  Claire heard a clatter and peeked in just in time to see L looking down into the now open container of Vaseline.  Being the fantastic mother she is, Claire said L's name and started into the room.  L performed her little freak out, then proceeded to insert her fingers speedily into the Vaseline and fluttering them quickly and carefully about, all the while looking right at Claire and smiling sweetly.  Like I said, this girl's hilarious.  Also, her favorite pastime while walking outside is leaf-collecting.  She'll walk along holding a hand, and carefully pick up whatever leaves seem to fulfill her undisclosed criteria for pickup.  She's very specific in her selection.  This is no haphazard swipe along the ground; she very carefully picks up individual specimens and holds them in her hand until she can't hold any more, or drops a few in going after one, and the process begins again.  We could watch her all day.  She's so fun; we love it.

That seems to be just about everything new and/or exciting for us, so I'll leave you with just this one last video.  It's long, and I promise it's the same thing throughout.  If you're bored with it, feel free to skip it.  We, on the other hand, can't get enough of this little hooligan.  Enjoy.

I don't really have anything to say

I've been thinking lately that it's been an awfully long time since I've felt like I had anything clever to write.  This blog has kind of suffered in the last couple of years.  I used to think I was a clever writer, but then I married Justin, who is an exquisite writer, so I don't write very much anymore because I'd much rather he wrote about things.  It's much more entertaining to read from his perspective, as I'm sure you'll all agree.  However, since he's so busy and I want to keep this blog relatively updated, I'm afraid you're stuck reading my thoughts for the time being.

Winter is fast approaching here in Illinois.  I'm actually getting fairly nervous about it.  Probably because everyone keeps warning us about it and because Justin is so worried that I don't really have any warm winter coats and he knows I hate the cold.  No, dislike.  Hate is a very strong word (I'm fully intending to learn to embrace the cold while we're here).  I have a ton of beautiful jackets, but none of them are very warm.  I'm waiting to see what everyone else wears and talk to people about what keeps them the most warm, then I'll go to some thrift shop (of which there are many) and find something.  It's only September and we're already wearing socks and sweaters around the house all day.  We turned the heater on in Louise's room, but we've resisted everywhere else (although I'll admit to preheating the oven a couple of times a day to warm my hands..shh!).

Louise is absolutely delightful.  She is getting to be such a character.  She's got a quirky little sense of humor already and laughs at funny (as in peculiar) things.  When we read Goodnight, Gorilla (her current favorite), she giggles every time we get to the page when they're all in bed, like she knows what's going on.  Maybe she does. :)  I love it.  She is such a great eater.  Not at all like her mother.  I'm so relieved.  She eats almost everything we eat.  We eat oatmeal for breakfast every morning, then we have a sit down lunch as a family after Justin gets home from work since he has class in the evenings.  A couple of weeks ago we had spaghetti and a big salad and she ate everything we put in front of her.  The salad had romaine lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, boiled eggs, weird mayonnaise/vinegar dressing, and celery.  She is getting so close to walking.  We're just a crutch for her now.  She can totally walk on her own, she just doesn't want to.  She's done it a few times when she is distracted and doesn't realize what she was doing, but as soon as she notices she sits down and pouts.  She sleeps 12 to 14 hours straight every night, and has since we got here and she had her own room.  It's wonderful.  She's so beautiful.  She still hates being in her carseat, and now hates being in the stroller after about 20 minutes.  I don't know what to try next.  

Justin and I got a family membership to the YMCA.  We've been going every day and we've developed a love-hate relationship with it.  We love going to work out and feeling so great afterward, but for the past week we've both been walking very gingerly and moaning every time we have to bend or sit.  We're both really excited about the prospect of getting back into shape.  Justin created a whole workout routine that he's been doing and I go to different classes every day.  Pilates, Zumba, Body Shaping, Zumba again, then Body Shaping again.  Then we just swim with Louise on Saturdays.  The family membership includes 2 hours of free babysitting each day while the parents work out, so we've been doing that with Louise.  She loves it.  She loves all of the new toys and especially playing with the other kids.  She is such a social little girl, I feel bad that we don't do more with friends.  Louise picked up her first cold this week, and I'm sure she got it from the Y.  I've got it now, too.  We've been eating so healthy and going to bed really early since being here.  We feel great (besides this cold).  I'm really excited because some of my old ECCOCI clothes are finally starting to fit again.  Now that I'm not nursing anymore it's a lot easier to lose weight.  I can't wait. :)

I'm really trying to work on making friends.  I guess I've gotten out of practice since college.  I'm not really the pushy type, and I feel really uncomfortable inviting myself into groups and to things.  I'm also not very good with big groups of people (this is one result of being the youngest of the family), I'd much rather talk to people one-on-one so I can connect, but I guess I'll just have to figure out how to be.  I really need friends here if I want this to be successful.  Does anyone have any tips for me on how to get out there and make friends in a new place where everyone already has friends?  Any ideas would be welcome. :)

We unpacked the last box yesterday.  It was a great feeling. :)

I just looked back at the blog and realized we haven't posted any pictures since we moved, so I'm gonna quit writing and just do pictures.  Goodnight!  

             My friend Stephanie came to see me before we left.  

Our whole lives fit into 5 feet.

 My mom with Louise the day before we left.

 Louise on the trip.  As you can see, we were packed in there like sardines.

 The view from the end of our street.

  

Justin was spitting out a frozen grape and she LOVED it.  Enjoy. :)

 Louise after eating her crazy salad.  Now THAT is a satisfied baby. :)

 Louise and I at Lake Michigan.  

 A funky-fied leaf we found on a walk.

 L with our neighbor's baby.

 Playing in the sand.

 A crazy sand castle at the beach.  This person builds a different one every day.  They're amazing.

Louise's new cupboard.

Hello again, blogging world

We did it!  We totally live in Illinois!

We had quite the eventful move, but now that we're here and all moved in we couldn't be happier.

Well, unless all of our family and friends lived here, too...hint, hint...

Our little family left on a Monday and arrived in Chicago (the suburb of Evanston is actually where we live) on Thursday evening.  We were told that our belongings in the moving truck would be here Thursday, Friday at the latest.  When I called them on Thursday, however, they said that the soonest they could deliver it was Tuesday, if they could deliver it to Evanston at all.  Perfect.  So there we were in a huge apartment with nothing.  Well, we had a nice, big oriental rug that we picked up on the way into town from a craigslist find (random fact: it turns out that there are like 5 oriental rug stores on every block.  No joke!).  No bed, no crib, no pots and pans, no dishes, no nothing.  Luckily I had been in touch with the relief society president while we were looking for an apartment, so I had her number programmed in my phone.  I called, but got no answer, so I left a message and we settled in on our rug with some beef jerky, string cheese, and wheat thins for dinner (we didn't have the internet or a phone book to look up any restaurants or stores and Louise was done).  The RSP called back a little while later and put us in touch with a couple that lived close by who let us borrow a portable crib, an air mattress and sheets, some towels, and a pot, which is the only reason we made it through the weekend.  We went shopping the next morning for some food that we could make in the pot (no microwave), and went to IKEA to get a bed.  We were so ready to get a good nights' rest because we hadn't had one since Sunday night.  That was my first experience with IKEA and it is truly a magical place.

Our bed was delivered on Saturday, so we spent the day putting it together and deep cleaning the apartment, which hadn't really been cleaned when the previous occupants left.  The moving company decided they could deliver our stuff on Monday after much convincing and finagling.  When it arrived and we figured out parking (another nightmare) they finally threw open the doors and...our stuff was everywhere.  The bulk head and somehow (I suspect foul play!) come loose and fallen down, allowing our things to tumble and fly around in the back of the semi.  The driver said he had never seen that happen before.  Right.  Anyway, with the help of a couple of guys from the ward we got it inspected for damage and all moved in just in time for it to really start raining.  I think that out of the first 6 days that we had been here it had rained for 4 of them.

The next few days were a flurry of unpacking and unloading boxes mixed with grocery shopping and walks around town and to the lake (3 or 4 minute walk away), and playing at the park next to our house.  Justin had to go to Napa on Thursday, so we wanted to hurry and get as much unpacked as we could before he left.

We absolutely LOVE it here.  It is so beautiful.  Everywhere.  And there are people out walking and riding bikes and roller- blading and walking dogs and strolling with families at all times of the day.  Everywhere.  The everywhere thing is taking a little getting used to.  It's so weird to drive and drive and not leave city, just change cities.  The neighborhood we live in is wonderful, too.  There are so many young families and so many LDS families doing the same thing we are that we feel right at home.

We're going to bed now, so I'll post more later, with pictures!  We've been going to bed so early since we've been here, it's ridiculous!

We LOVE Chicago!

Toodle-oo!                 

Moving

We're moving on August 6th and 7th.  We found an apartment in Evanston, a northern suburb of Chicago.  We're going to load the truck on the 6th, then drive to Cheyenne on the 7th, Omaha on the 8th, and Evanston on the 9th.  Our belongings will arrive on probably the 11th of 12th.  Justin will leave for Napa on the 16th, return on the 20th, and has orientation on the 24th.  School starts officially on the 30th.  Somewhere in that time we'll move in. :)
We're ecstatic.  And doing our best to think about going, not leaving.  I've been trying to go through 1 room per day (difficult with a 9 month-old).  When I got married I never really moved out, so I have stuff in every room.  It's finally starting to feel like we're really moving.  Justin is in Napa without us right now.  I'm very sad about it since this time was going to be my last time to go.  We just felt like it was a better idea for us to stay since Louise will be going on a 27 hour drive next week.  We felt like that on top of a Napa trip would just plain be too much.  Justin will be flying in the future.
I can't wait to start decorating.  And exploring Chicago.  And meeting new people.  I'm just excited. :)