Around the house in June

This tough baby can handle blood draws. The Dr. wanted to check her for Celiac Disease and it took the nurses 8-12 pokes and adjustments in each arm to get any blood. The nurse stopped after doing one arm and asked if I wanted to continue trying or they could send me to the children's hospital. We were already there and it would be good to just get it over with, so we said a little silent prayer and tried the other arm. Still difficult, but they finally got a vein. Poor baby was wailing through the whole ordeal. Thankfully, she calmed down pretty quickly with some of mama's milk. Her blood test came back normal, so they'll retest her every few years.

She loves anything just her size.

She's seeming more like a little girl every day.

And little girls love their clothes....especially accessories from mom or dad: shoes, belts, purses, etc.

All done with spaghetti with eggplant, asparagus, tomatoes, herbs, a white sauce with nutmeg on top, all sprinkled with Parmesan cheese. Yum. Rich's "cloth monster" had a lot of fun eating up all the mess too.

Blessed parents.

#31

My birthday was busy with rehearsal and then going to my friend Amy's birthday party. Afterwards, I had planned on spending the rest of the evening with Rich. However, my girlfriends convinced me to go along to a local free-on-your-birthday spa. I have such an understanding husband! He let me ditch him at Amy's party while I spent the next several hours at the day spa with Tascha and her friend. I had to quickly get comfortable being naked in a room full of women dipping themselves in pools of various temperatures. It was good to go with friends who had been there before, as they walked me through the whole spa experience: relaxing in the different heated pools, forcing myself under the 60 degree waterfall, pouring mugwort tea over my body, the dry sauna, the mugwort steam room, drinking a refreshing smoothie in the cafe, reading Cosmo's in the lounge while sniffing aromatherapy oils, and then moving on to the heated earth-energy rooms that ranged from 170 degrees to about 50 degrees. Surprisingly, I really liked the 50 degree room after all that heat. We were there for 3 or 4 hours and by the end I was super relaxed (but almost nauseous from going back and forth from hot to cold so much). hehe. I got home after midnight and that was my birthday! Thanks to Rich for letting me indulge in spa time with the girls!

My Birthday Party (L to R: Amy W., Amy B., Shannon, Kara, me of course, Ketsy, Christine, and Tascha, with Karen and Khadija wishing they could be there.)

The next day my friends threw me a birthday party. Not just any party. A lingerie party! I have the best friends and they really care about my sex life! They got the idea because we had so much fun shopping for Kara's bridal shower and one of them stated they were going to buy lingerie for regular gifts in the future, not just for brides-to-be. They also found out that I had some pretty old lingerie in my dresser. I received so many pretty pieces of lingerie and I feel like such a lucky woman. :) I have learned my lesson and I will buy lingerie regularly and I'm happy to say the party inspired some of my friend's to splurge on themselves too. Yay!

More in May

The 2nd half of May brought: a weekend visit to see Rich's parents, an afternoon dancing improv in the park, a beachfront house bonfire cookout, Dad & Karen going into the Missionary Training Center to serve their mission in Hong Kong, a BBQ with friends from church, a cast party for dancers at Rosa's house, teaching my friend Ketsy how to make cream cheese ring bread (It was so hard not to taste it, but I went right home and tried making a gluten-free version and it turned out okay), and seeing my friend Khadija & her husband get sealed to their kids in the Temple - totally beautiful!!!

Here's Claire hanging at the beach with sand around her mouth.

1st Birthday Cake

I didn't want Claire to eat a normal sugary cake (*no sugar until 2), so I made a layered Lemon Cake with plain yogurt as the frosting and covered it with strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries. At least the yogurt and berries would be healthy. It looks huge in the pictures, but it was really small, served on a teacup saucer. Claire was fading fast by the time she was ready to eat the cake, and we forgot to put a candle on it. But, I think she liked tasting something new.

Here's a funny moment caught on video. This doesn't show us singing Happy Birthday to her, her trying to eat the plate, and her looking over the side of the highchair at the huge chunks of cake that had fallen to the floor. It was all cute.

*No sugar until 2, well, she's had mango lassi, mango sticky rice, a tiny bit of syrup, some of Rich's sugary Oh's cereal, and I think I remember a bite of cookie dough because she was really begging.

#1

Claire's 1st birthday! We had a little family party. For decorations I made some paper birds to hang on the wall and I had a lot of fun wrapping presents for her.

After dinner she opened gifts: Ten Tiny Kisses book (she LOVES books), sippy cup, toddler activity flash cards, Winnie the Pooh bear, and a wooden farm animal shape sorter. As you can see she puts everything in her mouth, and I soon found paint flecks at the corners of her mouth from the wooden farm animals. I'm hoping the paint is safe. I bought it at a garage sale and there's no brand name on the toy, so no way to research it's safety. Cringe.

1st Birthday Card

Did you get Claire's 1st Birthday Card in the mail? If so, great. If not, it's because I lost the list of people I was marking off as already sent. Oh, someday I will be organized. The card was to make up for not sending out a birth announcement, and now I don't even know who I sent it to, and I have a small stack of leftovers that I shouldn't have. Someday, please!

Thanks to Melissa for putting this card together for me. Our church ladies group did a service auction and I bid & won a Photoshop tutorial given by Melissa. I'm so excited about getting this card made, it was on my mind for a long time. I'm glad to have a check mark on my mental To-Do List.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day afternoon we went to the park to take photos. Again, why am I not in any? We actually would have taken more, but we ran out of space on our camera and called it a day. Claire was upset that I took her sippy cup away. Good thing toddler emotions don't last too long, at least for now.

Mom & Baby

I'm always telling Rich that he needs to take more pictures of Claire and I together. I would love to have a professional photographer take really artistic and loving pictures of us with great lighting with a simple background and clothing. But, a photographer is not in the budget. So, these pictures with no make-up and messy hair will have to do.

9 Years!

For our 9th anniversary, we went to a crepe restaurant that we found on a visit before we moved here. We savored the carmelized bananas, chocolate, almonds, and whipped cream dessert crepe we ordered. So rich! Of course, we talked about our last 9 years and what's in store for us in the future. I'm blessed to have my husband as my best friend.

Milestones and Transitions

The end of April and the first half of May were full of milestones and changes to come. Rich started playing bass guitar in a band - a real dream for him. The house we're renting was put on the market, so that means finding a new place to live. Claire said "Mama". Rich and I celebrated our 9th anniversary. It was the 15-year annivesary of my mom dying of cancer, she passed away when I was 15. A Mother's Day for me that was happy and peaceful. Claire's 1st birthday. I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease via skin biopsy, blood test, and an esophagogastroduodenoscopy and I will have to eat gluten-free for the rest of my life! Ahhhh!

Baby in bed

One of my favorite pictures of Claire. So serene.

I love my naked baby tumbling sessions.

One of Claire's favorite books is Mommy Loves Me. It has a sweet poem and pictures of moms cuddling their babies. I'm glad it makes her feel good.

Kara's Wedding

Kara is one of my dancer lunch group friends and for the last few months we've heard lots of wedding talk. The wedding arrived and my question was "what am I going to wear to a formal dessert reception?" I wore a skirt that I bought a few years ago and had never worn because it was a tad too big (I bought it thinking I would alter it), but with my post-baby body it fits me. The sweater was a last-minute idea and I love the cream and green combo. I only have black dress shoes so Christine brought me a few pairs to try. I swear we were only a few minutes late and Kara had already walked down the aisle! What kind of wedding starts on time? I hurriedly picked shoes in the lobby and we found seats before the vows took place. It was an old, formal church with stained glass and stone arches and the ceremony was nice. We headed to the reception and had fun with my friends, Amy, Christine, Karen, Sarah, and Natascha. Kara swooped by our table too.

And I have to add how lucky I feel that we have husbands/boyfriends who all huddled and excitedly took pictures of us girls being silly.

Performing Again

In April I performed for the first time since having Claire. Yay!!!

A choreographer I knew from college, Rosa Vissers, invited me to be part of a quintet for women. It felt like a long journey back to a lifetime ago of dancing: working through rehearsals when I was tired and already stressed as well as not having the strength and abilities that I used to. Another big element was battling my skewed view of myself as a dancer. Right before I got pregnant I had an awful dance experience and an injury. The situation made such an impression on me that I had weekly nightmares for a year. So, it took a lot of convincing my self to not jump to the worst conclusion and assume the choreographer wasn't pleased with my work or dancers thought I sucked or they couldn't stand working with me when I messed up. I had to reason with and remind myself that I am a good dancer, period. I've had 22 years of dancing to prove it. However, I couldn't believe how hard it was to pick up the movement phrases and get beyond barely knowing what came next to actually add in dynamics and perform the movement. It basically took the whole 3 months of rehearsals for it to finally come together for me. I'm grateful to Rosa for working with me as well as the other dancers for their patience and trust, despite my slow progress. A bonus was that I got to work with another U of U alum, Laurel, and another dancer, Tova, that I really enjoyed dancing with in classes at Velocity. The performances went very well and I was happy to be part of the show.

*performance photo by Gary Lappier

*performance photo by Gary Lappier

Working with Rosa was the perfect scenario for me to return to dancing. She is so warm and positive. Just typing this makes me want to cry. It was exactly the "care" that I needed to come back.