addie at 3

I started this post ages ago and added to it here and there. Then I waited to post it thinking I would add some pictures but at this point, let’s be honest, that’s not going to happen. So I’m hitting publish before it gets any later from Addie’s birthday!

Here is are some snippets of what life is like with Adelaide at age 3.

- She loves to “read” us books. She memorizes some of the pages or just makes things up. Heidi sent her a darling book called “Thank you!” and it’s one she loves to read to me. She actually remembers most of the pages and does a pretty good retelling.

- At bedtime she transforms into a cat and crawls down the hall to her bedroom, meowing all the way.

- She’s in love with Peter Pan. My mom bought her a set of Peter Pan figurine toys and they get tons of play. She loves little “Tinkabell.” And she does the most hilarious low and growly voice when she plays Captain Hook. When I bought the movie I never expected her to get so attached to the story! She also discovered “Jake and the Neverland Pirates” on the Disney Jr. app we have. She will randomly tell me, “Say ‘Yo ho ho!’” and then tell me, “Good job!” after I say it.

- Her favorite toys are her Little People (especially the princesses), her Sesame Street figures, the Peter Pan figures and the Mickey Mouse figures we got at Disneyland. It’s so fun to see her playing pretend with the pieces. I’m always coming across a pile of Little People in my shoe, or set up on a cupboard or shelf after she’s been playing with them. She also pretends to be something herself, “I’m a buttafly!” “I’m Angayeena Bayareena” (Angelina Ballerina) or “I’m Supa Why!”

- She can be very contradictory and the grumpiness makes me laugh. “Do you want some yogurt?” “NO yogurt!” “Do you want to play outside?” “NO play outside!’ But if she does want something, she says “YES!” with the cutest almost-lisp. (Sometime since Christmas she started saying “yeah” or “yes” instead of “yay!” like she used to. I miss it but her “yes”s are pretty cute.)

- When Jacob gets home from work, Addie runs to the door and says, “Daddy! The plants are waking!” and then they go out and water the garden. She talks a lot about whether the sun is up or “waking” too.

- After many months of struggling with her to sleep in her own bed all night, we’re finally back on track. I used the “Super Nanny” method of walking her right back to bed every time she got up and before long it did the trick. She still occasionally wakes up but generally does well. When it was still a recent achievement, she’d run into my room in the morning and yell, “I did it!”

- Unfortunately she’s started waking up VERY early (6 AM!) even though she has black out curtains. I’ve tried everything to get her to sleep till at least 7 without much luck. The only good thing is she’s pretty good to hang out in the living room and let me go back to sleep for a little while. I make her some breakfast and put on PBS Kids and then head back to bed! She watches shows, plays the ipad, or just plays with her toys out there and occasionally comes in to ask for something. It’s not ideal but it’s better than getting up at 6. How did I get a morning person for a child?? (I blame Jacob.)

- She thinks it’s funny to try to do things with her eyes closed, like walking around the room. It’s so silly and endearing.

- She likes to exert her independence especially when we’re getting in the car. She turns the light on in the garage, pushes the switch to open the door, and climbs into her carseat herself. “No Addie’s turn. I do it.”

- She likes to put on her own shoes (which was easier before I got her saltwater sandals with buckles that she can’t do herself.) She starts to put one on and then will ask me, “Zis foot?” to make sure she’s got it on the right foot.

- Jacob likes to watch “American Ninja Warrior” and Addie loves to watch it with him. She cheers and claps for them or says, “Oh no!” when they fall. It makes us laugh.

- She gets frustrated very easily when trying to accomplish a task or when she’s playing and can’t get the toys just right. She’s definitely got a short fuse and maybe some perfectionist tendencies.

- She absolutely hates loud noises, even noises that don’t seem that loud to me. She’s constantly covering her ears and yelping, “too youd!” (loud).

- She still love Cinderella, which she calls “Cindabella.” Ages ago when she would get impatient waiting for Netflix or an app to load I would tell her to say, “Bibbity bobbity boo” to get it to start, so she would say it over and over again. It’s stuck and she does anytime she’s waiting for something now. And she’ll say, “It’s yoading” (loading.)

- She often says something is, “Sooo bootiful.” She’ll sometimes pat me on the head and say, “Aww, so cute” and give me a squeeze.

- Somewhere she learned how to give handshakes. She constantly asks, “Mama, how you?” And after I say I’m fine she says, “I’m Addie.”

- She loves to sing. She constantly breaks into song while doing other things. The ABC song, Twinkle Twinkle Little Start, Row Row Row Your Boat and Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree are a few of her favorites. She also sings the “Super Why” theme song, “I’m so betta, so much betta” (from Doc McStuffins), a song from Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood “Bathtime, brush teeth, put on jambes and off to bed…” and the “Quiet or Loud” song from Sesame Street. “Quiet! Shh! When you’re at a show…” (Uhhh she’s watching a LOT more TV now that she’s up so early in the morning!!)

- She’s still a very picky eater. She hates anything messy or sticky. She refuses to try anything that has a texture she doesn’t like. She loves anything with cheese (macaroni, quesadillas, grilled cheese, or just plain cheese!), peanut butter sandwiches, hot dogs, turkey lunchmeat, applesauce, yogurt, crackers, fries, pizza, carrots & ranch… those are the standbys. Other things get mixed in when she’ll let me like cheerios (the only cold cereal she’ll eat), pasta, etc.

- Her speech is improving everyday. She’s learning tons of new words and her pronunciation is improving. I feel like I understand her about 80% of the time. She sometimes has a hard time putting together sentences about something she’s never said before. Then she might string the words together in a funny order while she tries to work it out. For example, after getting bonked in the head while playing at my friend’s house she said, “Kendall ball….Addie ouchie head.” Then she’ll say it again and try and add new words or move the words around. I can tell she’s trying hard to think of the words or the right way to say it. I don’t know if this is the “right” way to do it, but I’ll say the sentence back to her, “Kendall hit you in the head with a ball?” and try and help her say it right. She’s using “I” a little more often now instead of always speaking in the 3rd person. All of that being said, I did ask the pediatrician for a referral to have her speech evaluated. But the insurance is taking forever to get it approved. I’d love to at least get the evaluation done before we move.

- She still loves to take baths and asks for at least one a day, often more. The toys she plays with most are just a bunch of cups, bowls and utensils that she fills up with water and pours into the other ones. My dad bought her little Cinderella and Rapunzel bath toys that always have to be in the bath with her.

- She’s come with me to a few prenatal appointments and is so interested in the “baby doctor.” She tells me all the time, “Mama, go baby doctor? See baby?” Today at my appointment when we listened to the heartbeat she said, “Ohh baby hungry.” Ha! Otherwise, she doesn’t talk that much about the baby except in response to us bringing it up. Occasionally she tells me she has a baby in her tummy too. I think it’s going to be a big adjustment for her when baby brother joins us!

- She’s pretty much been potty training herself lately. She asks to go on the potty a couple of times a day (but not every time.) She sometimes puts up a stink about getting dressed after a diaper change or bath and so I don’t fight her on it and just let her run around “au naturale” for awhile. During those times, she always takes herself to the bathroom if she needs to go. She gets out of the bath to go if she needs to, too. So we bought some panties at the store yesterday. So far she’ll wear them for part of the day (with some accidents and some successes) before asking for a diaper. I’m cool with that. There’s so much going on that I don’t want to force her into training. We’ll all be happier if she just does it as she’s ready!

We love our sweet and silly girl. We can’t imagine our family without her.

Posted in Adelaide | 2 Comments

ten

This is a “Ten on Tuesday” post I started earlier this month (before things got really out of control around here) and never finished. I’m going to go ahead and publish it as-is (and post date it for accuracy) because some blogging is better than nothing when it comes to memory keeping. At this point my last two years of blogging will all fit in about a 20 page book. Someday I’m going to be sorry about that!

- During my pregnancy with Addie I was addicted to the lemon, citrusy smell of Lysol 4 in 1 cleaner. I craved it. I looked for things to clean so that I could spray it. This time around I’m in love with the smell of Dawn soap. I’ll do the dishes by hand just to use the soap. I wipe down the shower every night with the Dawn/vinegar mix, just for some sniffing. Nesting related? Who knows.

- Speaking of nesting, I want to organize and decorate. I do NOT want to pack and clean. Unfortunately I only have packing and cleaning to do this month.

- Jacob is studying to take Step 3 of the board exams in a week. He gets up early and studies before work. Then after work he comes home for an hour or so (it’s never enough time for Addie. She makes him go out and water the yard “the plants are waking daddy!”, come in her room and play with her toys, sit on the couch and read books, etc.) and then he leaves to study again. Sometimes I’m already asleep by the time he comes home. Can’t WAIT till he’s done. I have not missed the student life where he had to study all the time and on top of resident life and everything else we have going on, it’s a lot.

- We still don’t know where we’re going to live in UT. We’ve looked at some rentals. We’ve looked at buying. I went up to UT and looked at some communities. But things are really up in the air still.

- Our business is booming and I can’t keep up with the product demands. We’re coming up on our “busy season” so it makes sense to crank out as many of the new big products as we can but who can find the time??

- Addie is so cute and funny these days. She chatters to me all day long. She loves to play with her Little People princesses. She’s wild and climbs on (then jumps off) everything. And she’s started waking up at 6 AM no matter how late I let her stay up, heaven help me. The only blessing is she actually begs to go to bed at night because she’s so tired. She often starts asking around 6:30 but I don’t let her go to bed before 7. I don’t want her to start waking up at 5 AM!

- I’ve been watching all the seasons of Gilmore Girls while I clean, work, etc. Addie sings along to theme song now (but otherwise pays absolutely no attention to it) and it makes me strangely proud.

Posted in Lists | 3 Comments

ten (very late) on tuesday


Our sweetie!

1. Life has been crazy since Match Day (a month ago already!) So many decisions to be made now that we know where we’re going. Jacob has had a ton of paperwork to do for the residency so it’s been a pain to get that done (and I’ve had to do a lot of it because his current rotation is very busy.)

2. Jacob’s 29th birthday was the day after Match Day. He had to work the night before so he spent a good chunk of the day sleeping. My friend Laura babysat Addie for a couple hours so we could go to dinner at Cracked Pepper Bistro. It’s a fancy restaurant that is always recommended as the best restaurant in Fresno. I didn’t make reservations in advance because we were so wrapped up with the Match that we didn’t know what we wanted to do for dinner. But we went right when they opened and they squeezed us in before a later reservation. Their eggplant/goat cheese napoleon is famous so we started with that and could barely keep ourselves from “MMMMMMMM”ing the whole time we ate it. Seriously, so good. My entree (braised short ribs) was delicious but Jacob wasn’t that crazy about his steak (sad!) We shared the bread pudding for dessert, their other famous dish. But we were so full that after a couple bites we had to take the rest home. Honestly, that’s all we did for Jacob’s birthday! He’s happiest when he’s well-fed.

3. I’m about 28 weeks now. I have a hard time keeping track because they’ve moved my due date around a little bit. My iron is low which explains the several weeks of severe exhaustion and fatigue I was feeling. Iron supplements have helped with that and I’ve been enjoying another burst of energy. Sleeping has been rough, I think a lot earlier this pregnancy than last. My left hip has been killing me for weeks now. Sleeping with the pregnancy pillow has helped but it still bothers me.

4. This little guy moves a LOT. And the last few days I’ve been noticing he seems to have the hiccups once or twice a day. Little rhythmic pops for a 4 or 5 minutes. We have talked names but aren’t even remotely close to choosing something. I’m very picky about names in general but especially boys names so I have no idea how we’re going to choose something! The few names I’ve liked have not been favorites for Jacob so we’re pretty much at square one.

5. Matching to Utah for Jacob’s residency is absolutely the best possible scenario we could have and we are so excited to be moving back there. BUT moving is still a stressful process. The first road bump we ran into was insurance. We will have a lapse in coverage for about a week at the end of June when Jacob’s insurance ends here (at the official end of his 1st year) and when he starts the new residency on July 1. If the baby comes that week, we will have to use COBRA. I’m crossing my fingers that we won’t run into pre-eclampsia this pregnancy and hopefully the baby will come after July 1st! The other issue is we planned for Addie and me to go to Utah at the end of May for my cousin’s wedding. We planned to stay there while Jacob finishes up here and moves. Then I could start seeing my new OB for the last part of the pregnancy. But our current insurance will not pay for doctor’s visits out of state. After many, many phone calls to different people we think we have it worked out so we can still go with that plan. So that’s one piece of good news!

6. I’ve also been really busy trying to figure out what we want to do for housing in Utah. It’s more expensive to rent there than it has been here. So we’re looking at our options and trying to decide what to do! Jacob’s really busy with residency and studying for Step 3 so it’s pretty much all on me to figure out.

7. Addie’s birthday was a couple of weeks ago. My baby is 3! I will have a post about her birthday and more about her at 3 soon. My parents were here so we enjoyed celebrating with them. No party this year! As much as I love doing parties, I just couldn’t tackle one this year. I think Addie was plenty loved and spoiled without one. My mom took me on a tour of her childhood homes/schools in Tulare during their visit. And another day we made it up to Yosemite (hopefully pictures soon.)

8. Addie is finally sleeping in her own bed again for a month or so now. One night I just decided to try the Super Nanny approach of walking her back to bed without saying anything to her. She was so bewildered the first time I tried it that she went along with me. She whimpered in bed for 10 minutes or so and then went to sleep! I’ve been religious about that method ever since. That completely eliminated any funny business at bedtime (and she’s been great about going to bed at 8 or earlier, usually telling me when she’s tired and wants to go to bed!) And if she wakes up in the middle of the night I just take her back to bed and tuck her in and she usually goes right back to sleep. But it’s been weeks and weeks since she slept in our bed. We used a sticker chart and prizes for awhile but she forgot about them and kept up the good habits, yay. We’ve been battling her sleep since last September so this has been a huge relief. Especially since my sleep is already so disrupted with pregnancy!

9. Business has been booming for Heidi and I. We can’t keep up with all the products we’re trying to get done. I get e-mails and messages everyday asking us when we’ll have this or that ready for this or that grade. There just aren’t enough hours in the day, especially with everything else Heidi and I have going on. But it has been such a huge blessing for both of us to see this amazing success and I am grateful every day. We are doing our best to get new products done.

10. My friend LaShay has been watching Addie a couple mornings a week so I can work which helps so much. Addie LOVES her kids so she loves going. They have a big yard with a trampoline and playhouse and garden. She usually comes home absolutely filthy and exhausted from playing so hard. And having a few hours of uninterrupted work time has been amazing for getting those new products done. I just stopped having my mother’s helper come each week. She only came for 2 hours and since Addie was still here, I was constantly interrupted. This set-up with LaShay is a much better arrangement for productivity.

I feel like this is just a sliver of everything that’s been going on lately. I kept putting off writing a post because there was so much I wanted to mention but this give at least a glimpse of our lives right now. And now I need to take my tired, pregnant body to bed! I will try to do a post with pictures soon!

Posted in Adelaide, California, Residency | 2 Comments

ch ch ch changes

Things are changing around here….

Last summer we moved to Fresno and Jacob started his internal medicine residency. The first few months were some of the hardest rotations of first year and we were feeling it. I noticed by the end of the first rotation that Jacob didn’t seem very happy and already seemed disenchanted with the hospital life he thought he wanted.

In September he did a rotation with a psychiatry resident who he became good friends with. The resident told him how amazing psychiatry was and what a good fit Jacob would be for it. Almost every night Jacob came home talking about psychiatry. At first, I wouldn’t even engage in the conversation. I figured it was just something he needed to talk through and confirm that he had already made the right decision with internal. But after a couple weeks I started to realize just how unhappy he was doing internal medicine and how seriously interested he was in psychiatry. I thought a lot about it and realized two things. 1- If he wants to make a change, now is the time to do it. It would be terrible to get to this point later in the process. 2- If he stayed in internal medicine just because of me, we could both have a very unhappy future.

So we started talking about seriously changing residencies. And we had to jump into the process head first because the application season was already underway. (I am so grateful he had this realization in September and not in February when it would have been to late to do anything this year.) I helped him get his application ready and he sent it out to as many 2nd year positions as we could find and also some 1st year positions.

He met with his program director in early November to make it official. She was extremely supportive but that was the point of no return. The program would be interviewing to fill his spot for next year. The next day I found out I was pregnant. We had been trying for several months and it didn’t even occur to me that we would get pregnant the month we did and I definitely didn’t do the math to realize the due date timing. Jacob will finish his residency here around June 22nd and his new residency will start by July 1st, at the latest. Baby is due July 11. Yikes.

And that’s the reason why I never shared any of this before now. The stress of applying to residency again was bad enough, but the timing of the new baby combined, it was just more than I could handle. It was easier for people not to know because then I could just tuck it away in my brain and try to think about it as little as possible. There was nothing I could do to make the process less stressful. There was nothing I could do to try and make plans about moving and the baby. So it was easier to not think about it and easier to not have people asking me about it. It’s also why we waited so long to announce the pregnancy. In my mind, it was all interconnected.

I got hit with morning sickness around Thanksgiving and it didn’t let up until February. Jacob spent all 3 weeks of his remaining vacation time going on interviews in January. That was a rough month and I hated that we had to use all his precious time off to do these interviews (which also cost us a fortune.)

Which brings us to March. We found out on the 11th that he had matched. And then the long wait all week to find out where. It was a lot different this year doing it as transfer students compared to last year when all my girlfriends were going through the same agony with me. Thursday night and Friday morning were the most agonizing. But finally we opened the e-mail and found out we are moving to

UTAH!!!!!

I can’t begin to tell you what an answer to prayers this is. More on that soon!!

Posted in Residency | 12 Comments

ten on wednesday

1. We’re having a BOY! The ultrasound was yesterday. We are SO excited. I have had the sense it was a boy for most of the pregnancy and unconsciously referred to the baby as “he” many times. But I never felt completely confident, not like with Adelaide when I knew she was a girl. Last week I had two dreams about the ultrasound and both times it was a boy so maybe my motherly intuition knew. We’re really excited to get to have a little girl and a little boy.

2. I immediately started looking online at baby boy clothes and there is some REALLY cute stuff out there for boys! I’m surprised so many people say it’s hard to shop for boys. I’m a bit picky and I still have seen a lot I like. I imagine this boy will be wearing a lot of stripes (much like his sister.)

3. Names, on the other hand, are a completely different story. I’m so picky about names in general but I have a longer list of things I don’t like when it comes to boy names so I imagine it’s going to be difficult to name this little one.

4. Suddenly one day late last week I started feeling the baby move a ton. I had felt flutters before but now I feel him a lot, several times a day. It’s nice and somehow comforting. It eases a mama’s mind.

5. Made an appointment for the eye doctor at Costco Saturday only to show up and discover we made the appointment at a different Costco and we couldn’t get over there in time. They didn’t have any more openings that day. So we ended up at a really ghetto Walmart with an eye center, but the optometrist was nice. Turns out my astigmatism has changed in my right eye and that’s why the contact couldn’t fit right and stay focused. She didn’t have the prescription I need on hand (they never do because it’s really high) so she gave me a fill-in pair that are at least better than what I was wearing before while she orders in a pair in the right prescription.

6. We picked up Peter Pan the other day and Addie really loves it. She asks to watch it every day. I haven’t seen it since I was little so it was fun for me to watch it again too. Maybe it’s being older now or being a mom but the whole “never growing up” thing has been on my mind since watching it. I can’t help but want Addie to always stay little and enjoy the magic of childhood. Also, am I the only person that never noticed that Captain Hook and Mr. Darling are the same voice? Adds a whole other level to the story that I never picked up on before.

7. Adelaide has been making me laugh lately with her obsession with moms, dads, grandmas, and grandpas. She talks about “Gamma and Gampa” every day, randomly telling me something like, “Gampa tired, Gampa take a nap” which makes me laugh. But she also loves to point out moms, dads, and grandparents in books or on shows. And subsequently she now calls every parent or grandparent she meets Mama, Daddy, Gamma, or Gama. She loves, loves, loves, her new nursery leader and the leader told me Sunday that she’d been calling her Grandma the whole time. My friend babysat her the other day and apparently Addie called her Mama the whole time too. Silly girl.

8. Last night I went to my friend’s book signing for her new book Pivot Point. I started reading and so far it’s great! I’m really happy for her and hope she has a lot of success!

9. Another friend from church came by today with her daughter (who is in my activity days group) to give me a cute boy outfit they picked out. I thought that was so thoughtful!

10. I picked up a new book for Addie for Valentines Day (because we have the You Are My Cupcake book and I really wanted the other one!) but I have zero plans beyond that. Not sure if I’ll bother with anything more!

Posted in Lists | 5 Comments