There you have it

Back in this post I said I'd tell you the most depressing book I've ever read. I have to agree with Kirsta and Kari, Angela's Ashes takes the cake. Probably because it's true. There were parts where I would think, "How can people possibly live like that?" And then it would just get WORSE. If you don't like depressing, don't read it.

The book I didn't find depressing (but my friend did) was The Lovely Bones. It's definitely not a happy story, but lots of stories aren't happy. Part of it may be that when books come out and get great reviews and all I hear is how amazing the book is, I have high expectations. Usually those expectations aren't met. You'd think after being disappointed a couple times I'd learn my lesson and stop having such high expectations, but no.

Anyway, I made it through November again. I'm not sure I said much of anything, but then again I'm not sure I ever do.

Back home

Well, here we are back in Grand Junction. The drive back was not much fun. Even though we left right before what should have been Kalena's nap time, she only slept for about 20 minutes in the car. The pathetic part is that she just wants out of her car seat. After a few hours of driving she will start pointing at her seat belt and saying her word for buckle and signing "please" over and over. And then when you tell her that she can't get out she cries. It's sad. It also gets old very quickly.

We've decided that we're just not doing any road trips for a long time after this baby comes.

Neigh neigh?

For many, many weeks, the only animal noise Kalena would make was a dog. She would say "woof woof" if she heard a dog bark or if you asked her what a dog says, although it took her quite awhile to associate the sight of a dog with the noise. (I blame our non-barking greyhounds for that. Although, never hearing our dogs bark didn't deter Patrick from pointing at them and saying "woof woof" Every. Single. Time. he saw them when they were visiting Texas.) It took quite awhile to convince her that not ALL animals bark. We did finally get the point across though, and now she'll do noises for a dog, a cat, a horse, a tiger (quietest roar ever), a sheep, a chicken, and a lizard (that one isn't so much a noise, she sticks her tongue in and out.)

Brian and I were both interested to see what she'd do when she saw some of these animals in person, so that was yet another reason to look forward to Thanksgiving. We're here in Alamosa with Brian's parents who have 2 dogs, a cat, chickens, horses, and a mule. She enjoys following the dogs and the cat around. One of the dogs is Onyx (she came here when we moved) and Onyx still runs away every time Kalena comes in the room. Buddy, the golden retriever, is much more tolerant and even the cat will sit still for the baby for a minute or two. She enjoys going out to feed the chickens, but the horses are DEFINITELY the favorite.

Brian's mom has been taking her out to feed the horses (they have 11 plus the mule) and she LOVES it. She rides around in the wheelbarrow with the hay and "helps" feed them. (Mostly she throws hay out the side.) As today went on, it became more and more obvious how much she likes the horses. She would go to the back door repeatedly and point out to the yard and ask, "neigh neigh?" and put up her hands in "I don't know" gesture as if to say, "when are we going out to see the horses again?" And when she's out feeding them she'll sign "more" when they run out of hay because she wants to give them more.

Brian's mom has been hoping (pretty much since she found out I was pregnant with Kalena) for a grandchild that loves horses. Looks like she got her wish.

P.S. She is currently pointing at these pictures and saying neigh.

Did you?

Black Friday. I did not shop today. It was an easy choice though. In Alamosa there's a Wal-Mart and... ummm... a Penny's? So I really didn't think that was worth going out for. Had we been in Grand Junction I would have gone. $1.49 a yard flannels at one of the craft stores were calling my name. (I asked my mom to pick some up for me.)

I actually enjoy shopping during the busy holiday season, people watching and seeing all the holiday decorations. Plus I do almost all my Christmas shopping online which means no pressure when I'm shopping in stores. I imagine I won't do too much in-store shopping this year since Kalena will only tolerate the stroller for so long; but I'm still planning to enjoy it. What about you? Do you like holiday shopping? Did you brave the black Friday crowds? And most importantly, did you get any really great deals? :)

Today, Kalena is thankful for bubble bath

For bubble bath and for giant jacuzzi tubs with jets that make massive amounts of bubbles. I think she's going to be highly disappointed when we get home and she doesn't get to do this every night.

I'm pretty sure the bubbles are actually deeper than the water.

18 month pictures

When Kalena was first born I already knew when I wanted to go get pictures done for her. Not just snapshots, but take her somewhere and have pictures taken. I wanted to do the same times my mom did for each of us: at months 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, and 18 then at 2 years and yearly after that.

I've stayed on top of it so far, and that meant taking her to get pictures done this month after she turned 18 months. So my mom and I took her down to Sears and dressed her up and discovered something about taking pictures of Kalena. You either get serious Kalena or happy Kalena. Serious Kalena will leave her barrettes alone and pose wherever you put her, but no matter what you do to try to entertain her, her "good" smiles look something like this:

With happy Kalena you get hair in the face and running around all over the place, but the smiles look more like this:

I like having the Sears pictures, serious as they are, but I'm glad I can also have the snapshots so her personality can shine through.

I guess some things never change

This picture was taken last November. Kalena and Brian were just zoned out watching some football.

This one was taken a few weeks ago. Kalena's hair is longer and Brian's is shorter, but there they are, hanging out, watching football.

I guess football is the exception to Kalena's only wanting to watch singing on TV.

Date night bullet points

When Brian texted me this afternoon asking if I wanted to do dinner and a movie tonight my first thought was, "um, YES PLEASE." And since living with my parents = readily available babysitting, I just okayed it with my mom and we were all set. I'm about ready to fall asleep, so here are some quick thoughts on the evening.

• There was a point when I never would have said something like this but: sushi dinner. YUMMY. Also, yes, I ate sushi while pregnant. Sue me.
• New Moon = better than Twilight. Still not as good as the book, but hey, what movie is?
• To the person texting during the movie: yes, I can see you. Even 8 rows back. P.S. Did you seriously pay $8 so you could have a conversation with someone who isn't even there? If you're going to talk during the movie, at least talk to your friends who also paid $8 to be there.
• Restaurant and movie were both Brian's choice. Because he's the best. Either that or he's buttering me up to ask for something big for Christmas...

And now, goodnight. I would like to stay up later but my alarm clock is a baby monitor and as many times as I've looked there's no snooze button. Big flaw in the design if you ask me.

The manners are hard to resist

One of the gifts I got at my baby shower for Kalena was a pair of baby sign language books. I knew a little about the theory behind teaching babies to sign, but I didn't feel strongly about doing it or not. When Kalena started trying to stand up out of her high chair when she was done eating though, I knew we had to do something. So we taught her to sign "all done." Everyone was considerably happier once she could tell us she was done and then wait while we got her out instead of trying to dive out of the high chair on to the floor. For a long time that was the only sign she did. We worked on the sign for "more," but she didn't use it much.

As she started learning words I figured signing would be pointless, but something changed my mind. What made me change my mind you ask? The WHINING. Oh my goodness, I just couldn't take any more whining. When she didn't how to ask for something she would just point and whine and whine and whine. First we went back to the sign for "more." And she quickly realized that pointing at something and asking for "more" (even if she hadn't had any) will usually get her what she wants. And then (because I want to raise polite children and also because I find it adorable) we taught her to sign "please." It did not take her long to pick up on the idea that asking for "more please" is even MORE likely to get her what she wants. Of course, then I had to teach her "thank you" to complete the whole thing. So now she will (often unprompted) ask for "more please" and then thank you for it. It is SO CUTE. In fact, the asking "more please" is so cute that I really feel bad when a) I have to tell her no, or b) I don't know what she's asking for.

Anyway, I won't lie. I'm WAY more likely to give her something when she puts on her big smile and signs "more please" than if she points at it and whines. Am I ever going to be immune to the cuteness?

I guess she likes the hair in her face

Kalena has PLENTY of hair to do cute stuff with. Unfortunately, she's not such a fan of having anything done. Anytime I put a barrette in it she'll pull it out and then hand it to me and say, "uh oh." As if she didn't just do that herself. Half the time she wants me to put it back in (so she can take it out again OF COURSE), the rest of the time she's just done with it.

For awhile rubber bands were better, but then she figured out how to get those out too. Now pretty much the only way I can even get them in her hair is if I do it while she's in the car seat. Sometimes I can get her to leave her hair done if she's distracted immediately afterward, but even then it's only a matter of time before she realizes she doesn't have hair hanging in her eyes and then it's all over.

Can you see her thinking, "Hey! Don't put that in there!"

"Now, which one should I take out first?"

So if you see Kalena running around with her hair all a mess, please don't judge me. I promise I tried.

18 months

On Wednesday Kalena hit 18 months. (18 months on the 18th, YAY!) We had her 18 month checkup today and here are the stats:

33.5 inches tall (93%)

27 lbs 8 oz (90%)

I think the weight might have been a little higher than normal though, because this morning Kalena was eating like it was going out of style! Her appointment was at 9:30 am and before that she ate 2 eggs with toast, a slice of bread (while we grocery shopped), a yogurt, and some banana. I guess she was hungry. Anyway, developmentally she's right on. It was interesting to hear the different recommendations though. In Texas our pediatrician said no whole milk, just 2%, but here they recommended she get whole milk. Also, our dentist friend in Midland said take her in at 2, but our pediatrician here said the AAP recently changed the recommendation to taking them in at 1 year. (So I guess I should get on that.)

The doctor's only concern was (confession time here) Kalena still takes a bottle to sleep. (I know! I posted forever ago about getting her off the bottle and then I never did.) She only gets water, so the doctor said that isn't so bad, but we still need to get rid of it. She recommended we either do it SOON, like before this baby comes so Kalena doesn't associate the two, or wait until the new year when things have settled down some. We'll see.

Kalena missed her 15 month appointment because we were in the process of moving, and she'd already missed one shot at her 12 month appointment so she needed 5 shots today. The doctor said we didn't have to do them all today, but I SO did not want to come back and Kalena has always handled shots well so I said go ahead and do them all. (I hope that doesn't make me heartless.) She did great though, took all 5 shots without crying. She did start crying when the nurse put the band-aids on though, don't know what that was all about.

I think that's it. Hopefully she'll stay healthy and we won't have to see the doctor again until next May! (For her anyway. Obviously having a new baby means many more trips.)

P.S. If you haven't already, go give me your opinion on this post.

More fun with cousins

When we were in Midland we had several wonderful friends who were always willing to take Kalena when Brian and I both had to be places. I always appreciated it, and looked forward to the time when I could do the same for someone else. Since we've been back in Colorado I've been happy to watch my nephew Espen a few times when (for one reason or another) he couldn't go to the daycare he normally goes to. It's always fun for Kalena to have a playmate, especially one so close in age. They are SO cute together, but it's hard to capture that in pictures. Here's one of my attempts anyway.

Playing peek-a-boo with leaves.

They were taking turns "falling down" and laughing about it.

Espen wasn't interested in his milk, but Kalena INSISTED on carrying it around trying to give it to him. He would usually take it for a second, set it down, and then she would pick it back up and go after him again.

Just lying around in the grass.

P.S. If you're wondering about the pink bottoms on Espen's tennis shoes in the middle picture, it's because he's wearing Kalena's shoes. Good thing their feet are the same size.

Good to know

Kalena has never been much for TV. Not that I try to get her to watch anything, but we haven't been super strict about avoiding it either. For the most part, when the TV is on she ignores it unless she is sick (in which case she mostly is just cuddling with the person ACTUALLY watching TV) or very tired (again with the cuddling.) I don't have the TV on much during the day, mostly because there are plenty of other things I ought to be doing.

Anyway, her cousin Patrick is big on movies, so when we were at Kirsta's I was interested to see if Kalena would watch if Patrick was watching. Not really, as it turned out. She would play near him, and watch occasionally, but she wasn't interested in sitting and watching like he does.

The other day though, Kalena kept wanting me to sing to her. And sing, and sing, and sing. (Itsy bitsy spider mostly. She's started "doing" the actions along with me which is adorable by the way.) Anyway, I was getting quite weary of singing so I thought to myself, "hey, my parents have on-demand, and I bet there is some kids show on there with singing." I didn't know whether Kalena would actually watch or not, but I figured it was worth a try. So I looked and sure enough, there was a show where they sing nursery rhymes and songs so I turned it on. And Kalena watched. Then she watched another one (they are 10 minute episodes.) And when I turned it off she asked for more. I decided to test out a little theory and see if she would just watch shows geared toward kids, so this morning I turned on Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and she watched! Apparently it's just the singing she likes. She doesn't care if it's animated or people or what. I guess she just wants to be sung to.

A reminder

Some cute pictures of Kalena all dressed up to go out to dinner. Just to remind me that not ALL days are like today.

You tell me

I just finished reading a book that a friend told me is the most depressing book she's read.  (No, it's not the one I was annoyed about being a series book.)  Here's the thing though-- I didn't think it was depressing.  It was sad, yes, but not depressing in my mind.  So here's what I want to know from you: what is the most depressing book you've ever read, and why does it top the list?  

Sometime next week I'll tell you which book this was, and which books are on my most depressing list.

P.S.  I don't mean to BE depressing here, I'm just curious.

Home again

Well, it's always good to be home.  But sadly, home means no built in playmate for Kalena.  Without Patrick, who is going to pull Kalena around in a Tonka truck?

She'll just have to sit there looking lonely.

On time (ish)

Here I am, 34 weeks pregnant. This picture looks a little weird, I think because of the mode the camera was on. Oh well, at least I took one this week right?

In terms of the pregnancy, I am feeling pretty good. The one MAJOR difference I'm noticing from last time is contractions. I have contractions ALL THE TIME. With Kalena I had contractions, um, never. Looking back at my blog posts from my pregnancy with her, the first time I even MENTION contractions I was 38 weeks 5 days. And then it was only to say that I was hardly having any. This time it seems like everything I do causes them. Carrying Kalena, walking up or down stairs, getting up off the floor, getting up off the couch, sometimes I even have them while I'm sitting there doing nothing. It's a crazy change from last time. Hopefully it's a good sign though.

And now I should go to bed, because these days Kalena believes that anything after 4:00 am is plently late enough to get up for the day.

P.S. NO. Getting up at 4:30 am every day has NOT made her naps any better.

That's Colorado for you

Today it's been cloudy all day and the snow finally started falling around 3:30 pm. A few inches have collected now, and as far as I know it's still snowing. But yesterday? Yesterday was gorgeous. While we were out running errands we took advantage of The Gorgeous and took the kids to a park near Kirsta's house.

Patrick is an old pro, but Kalena had her first experience feeding ducks. She wasn't *quite* sure why we were throwing the bread instead of eating it (she ate some anyway) but she had a good time.

This picture doesn't even begin to capture Kalena's excitement when she first started swinging on the swings. (But I still thought she looked cute here.)

Enjoying the tunnels at the playground.

This is one of my favorites. This was her first trip down the slide so she's a little unsure, but Patrick is there to help her along:)

And as if they weren't adorable enough, Patrick calls her "Na Na" (like he's saying the end of Kalena twice.) Every time she leaves the room he looks around and asks, "Na Na?" like, "where'd she go?" Too cute.

More of my reading quirks

I've mentioned before that I can be weird about reading, more specifically, about what I read. Here's something else to add to that list. I don't like to read series books unless most or all of the series is already published. I don't like to have to wait to finish the story-- I want it all NOW! I didn't read the Harry Potter books until the first 5 were out. I didn't read the Twilight series until the first 3 were out. Also, when I did finally read those particular series, I finished each within a week. I'm a quick reader and reading everything at once just tends to make things flow better for me. I get more into the stories and more attached to the characters. The downside to all this is that I'm probably sadder when the series ends than if I'd read the books one at a time as they came out. (Brian would probably say that the BIGGER downside is that I get all caught up in reading instead of doing things like, say, laundry.)

Anyway, the point of all this is to say that I was REALLY annoyed with myself when, halfway through the last book I read, I looked at the back flap and realized that I was reading the first book in a series and the next book isn't scheduled to be published until NEXT SUMMER! I found the book interesting, and I definitely want to know what happens next. But of COURSE I can't just go get the new one when it comes out and read it. I have to reread this one just before the next one comes out. And if I like the second and there's a third? I have to read the first 2 again before IT comes out! And so on and so forth. Seriously. Before the 6th Harry Potter I read the first 5 again. And before the 7th I read the first 6. I'm just obsessive like that. Is it just me? What are your thoughts on series books?

The little guy

Kari's been asking for them, so here are a few quick pictures. (Unedited because AGAIN, not on my computer.)

My mom with her newest grandchild.



Patrick loving on his new brother. All together now- Awwwww!



Of course, you have to be careful where you put Eli, otherwise Patrick will sometimes love on him a little too much.