She's 69 and 78 and Getting Married Today

You might've heard: Rosalind turned a year old yesterday. What the what. It has been an INCREDIBLY long, challenging year. But also rewarding, interesting, and I've learned a lot about a lot. Let's be as vague as possible, shall we?

For her birthday, I invited over my parents and Sam's parents for a little shin dig involving strawberry cupcakes that I made from scratch (which involved only two strawberry-purée explosions to begrudgingly clean up). We also opened presents (by we I mean me on behalf of Ros, of course). Then there was a bath and lots of crying, and then grandparents went home. Good times!

Of note lately:

Ros is now 22.5 pounds and 30 inches tall. She hasn't changed much at all in the past few months. I think she used to weigh more, but she didn't eat much the past couple weeks when she was sick, poor thing. She still has rolls to spare, but I can tell she's leaning out a bit. 

She has 7 teeth now: the front two on top, the front four on the bottom, and her bottom left molar (fun fun fun when that came in). I think she might also be getting her next front top right incisor, but I'm not sure.

She's almost down to just one nap a day, which, since she's in transition, makes it tough to gauge when she's really tired, and she is usually VERY ready to go to bed at 6pm. Still sort of early, but hey, I'm not complaining since she goes right to sleep and doesn't make a peep til 7am (usually...I probably just jinxed myself). I don't think she's ready to ween quite yet, since she still asks for a bottle three or four times a day, but that's fine. I will let her take her time on that one since I enjoy bottle time.

She cruises everywhere. She has been known a handful of times to stand on her own, and will walk if you hold her hands. She doesn't like rolling much anymore, but does it when necessary. She also learned to crawl on her hands and knees a week or two ago, but she only does it about a foot or so at a time, at most (she mostly army crawls). She can't really pull up to standing, but she can pull up to kneeling, so that's a start I guess. She also can't get into sitting position from lying down. This girl, I tell you.

Ros loves to read books with you, and takes great pride in turning the pages for you. She also loves to stack things, put things on shelves and into baskets, take out things from where they go, and cause general destruction. This morning she pulled a heavy thing onto herself, which knocked her back so that she hit her head, and I about had a heart attack, but she didn't even cry. Tough kid! She is persistent in refusing to dance, but she does mimic me doing yoga (which is hilarious...she has about 3 moves), and loves when people sing.

Ros knows lots of words (relatively speaking). She says "uh oh" all day err day and it's hilarious. She says "hi" and can wave "hi" and "bye." She has once or twice said "mama" but I don't know if she got the context. Sometimes she calls Sam "DA!" She also says "bwuh" or more like "bw" for book and sometimes button, and says "pw" or "puh" for diaper sometimes too. She stopped saying "ah da" for all done when she got sick over Christmas, but has recently started saying "ah ah" instead (and more often lately she has started using the sign for "all done" instead). Weird regression there. Oh, and she says a whispered "sah" when saying things like "what/who is that?" She also knows the sign for "bottle" (we use the sign for "milk" instead because it's easier for her)-- which she also uses for water, and "more," and will grab her chest when we tell her to fold her arms. She also points at everything and claps when she is happy or excited.

She is curious about everything and totally gets into trouble exploring about a thousand times a day. She doesn't like being left alone to play anymore unless she's really distracted, which is a huge bummer for me. She'll still do it if she can at least see you, but that's harder to do in our new place. Maybe she's just not used to it yet.

She loves her bunny rabbit, and she knows it lives in the crib and she can only have it while sleeping, but I still catch her trying to pull it through the bars so she can snuggle it. Speaking of which, she snuggles everything by cocking her head and pressing it to her ear (and sometimes patting it on the back). I even saw her doing it to her fork during dinner the other day. Weirdo.

Anyway, Ros is a hilarious and cuddly kid and I like her a lot. Like I mentioned, she got really sick for about two weeks over Christmas, and that made it difficult, but she's mostly all better now, so she's back to her cheerful self again. There are times recently when she just cries and cries that remind me hauntingly of her colicky days, but those are just in the past couple of weeks and she is always either hungry or tired in those cases. I'm just still learning those things since obviously she can't tell me when she wants food because she refuses to learn the sign for "eat." ANYWAY. I still like her. I'm nervous but excited to have her be a toddler with more personality and preference. Yikes!

A New Home

So! We have our own place! It kind of worked out really well, actually. We wanted somewhere under a certain amount per month, but with enough space, and within a certain radius from our workplaces. 

We had been actively searching since like October or November with no luck. We saw lots of places, talked to lots of people, filled out applications, and always came up empty-handed. It was discouraging.

Okay, let me back up. We have really loved the opportunity we've had to spend time mostly rent-free living with parents. I think it was good for my mom too, because they had just moved into a big new empty house, so we were able to fill it for the adjustment period. It was great to have help whenever I needed it (especially when Ros was really little), and good for Ros to be around a lot of people and animals too. Midway was nice for all those things too, plus the added bonus of being able to spend time outdoors. We had a good deal.

But after 9 months without private space or our own stuff, it was just time. You understand. I love our families.

So back to the apartment search. Nothin' after nothin'.

Then one day we decided to go see a too-good-to-be-true duplex at a great price. It looked a little scammish. It turned out not to be, but the guy we met with seemed skeptical of us (four jobs? You moved why? Etc), so we wrote it off. I knew if it was where we were supposed to be, we would get it. 

Then, lo and behold, a few days later we heard back and he offered it to us! That was a joyous moment. We signed paperwork the next day and spent the following week moving in.

We are finally getting settled a bit. Almost everything is unpacked and has a place. We purged a lot, too. That was something we had already planned on doing, months ago, but the fact that this is kind of a small place helped that along.

We still need a couch though. That would be nice.

Here are some pictures of our progress, for those interested:

I'll post more/better pictures when things get more finished. Yay!

And To All A Good Night

Christmas break was pretty eventful! We spent the 5 or so days leading up to Christmas up in Midway to spend time with all the siblings who came out. It was fun to just hang out and eat food and sit around. Rosalind got to play with her cousin Bea, who she LOVES. It was so hilarious to watch them interact. Bea would run away, Ros would scream and throw her hands in the air, then Bea would run toward her and hug her, they would both laugh hysterically, and then they would do it all over again. And again. It was pretty funny.

For Christmas Eve and Day, we were at my parents' house. My siblings all came over and it was fun. Christmas Eve we put on a little program, which consisted of silly songs, serious songs, and a "Christmas Wrap" performed by me...(I hope it was funny).

I feel a little bit like a loser mom because this was Rosalind's first Christmas and I didn't make a big deal out of it. I mean, it's not like she sat in a corner and sucked on coal while everybody else partied, but you know.

Christmas Day we had breakfast at our leisure and opened gifts. Ros got a few things, but she didn't really understand opening them, and then needed to take a nap halfway through, so she was a bit of a Scrooge. I didn't even think to take pictures, but fortunately my sister Megan did.

The rest of that day and the next, we basically hung around, and it was really nice to be able to hang out with all the siblings and spouses together. It's not something we get to do often, especially for extended periods of time. I'm thinking especially of Megan and Jared, because they usually leave earlier on family dinner nights, so they aren't really around for games and chatting. Anyway, it was a lot of fun, and I felt happy after all the sib time.

Also on Christmas Day, we got to Skype with Abby in Idaho. It was fun to see her. It almost doesn't feel too much like she's been gone that long since she stays in touch so well and sends lots of pictures, but it's always good to see a friendly face! Rosalind enjoyed seeing her too. Abby is a babymeister.

Rosalind ended up getting sick Christmas Day with whatever was going around, so she had a fever, cough, and congestion for the next little while. She also happened to be getting teeth at the time. More fun. She also ended up getting an ear infection (her first one!) last week from this, but it's just about cleared up now.

New Year's Eve we went back up to Midway and had the opportunity to go swim as a family in the Crater where Sam works. It was so nice in the water (as always), and Rosalind seemed to enjoy herself until the life jacket started to annoy her. So we went back to the sitting pool and I took it off, and she was enjoying herself in my lap until (I didn't realize the bench was slanted, k?) I slid down the bench and she went underwater for a couple of seconds, which terrified her. Mother of the Year, I am.

Later we took a sleigh ride at the Homestead, which was cool and fun but it was I think -5 degrees Fahrenheit that day, so it was PRETTY chilly. The kids liked seeing the horses though, so it was fun, despite the frozen nose hairs.

After the sleigh ride we came home and had hot chocolate, then red beans and rice. We watched a hipster Daniel Radcliffe movie and then went to bed (at like 9:30pm). Party animals!

All in all, though there were crazy parts over the break, it was really good to see family for so long (Caity was here for a month!), and it was nice to have two weeks off of work (Sam got several days off too!), and we all had a good time.