Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games and Valentines Day

The time has finally arrived. The 2010 Vancouver games have finally begun and I'm so excited!! I LOVE the Olympics so much and I'm so happy to 1) be a stay at home Mom so I an watch all the events, and 2) have satellite TV with PVR so I can record the stuff I miss. The opening ceremonies were great! Dave of course, being the patriotic Canadian, nature lover, loved everything about the opening ceremonies. He loved the nature scenes and the fiddlers. My favorite part was when they made it look like whales were swimming across the floor. I also really enjoyed watching all the athletes enter the stadium. The Italians had some pretty classy uniforms. Today Canada finally won a gold medal, the first gold medal won by a Canadian on Canadian soil. It was won by Alex Bilodeau in moguls. GO CANADA!!!

Today is also Valentines Day. We made some cherry chip Valentines Day cup cakes and went to visit Nannu at his nursing home in Brampton. It was nice to see him as usual, and Rosie had fun running around the dinning room and making the other residents laugh.

Speaking of Valentines Day, here's a cute picture taken earlier this week that is full of so much LOVE. What a nice thing to wake up to.

Also for Valentines Day, Rosie let me paint her toes pink (I told her I was giving her "princess toes" since she into princesses now).
Tomorrow is the 2nd annual "Family Day". I'm looking forward to relaxing with Dave and the kids and watching some more Olympics!

Me Ka Aloha- Elisabeth

Planting Seeds

During the October 2009 General Conference, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf gave a talk called The Love of God. In this talk he asked "...of all the things we want to be known for, are there attributes above all others that should define us as members of His Church, even as disciples of Jesus Christ?" At the end of his talk he says "Let us be known as a people who love God with all our heart, soul, and mind and who love our neighbor as ourselves. When we understand and practice these two great commandments in our families, in our wards and branches, in our nations, and in our daily lives, we will begin to understand what it means to be a true disciple of Jesus the Christ."

I really love this talk. President Uchtdorf is an amazing speaker and I can really feel the spirit when I read this particular talk. After I read it, I prayed that I could better love others and be a better example of a member of His church. Along with that, I am always praying for missionary experiences.

Well, earlier this month Dave and I had been trying to save up to buy a new bed frame that I've been eying for a while. We were selling things that we no longer needed on kijiji to raise the money. We sold Rosie's old crib, a DVD burner, Jumperoo, box springs, and metal bed frame. We also listed our old play pen for $25 but nobody had bought it yet. That play pen was given to us for free a few years ago and it wasn't exactly the nicest one. Any how, I got an email from a lady asking to buy the play pen for her church's nursery. I asked her what church she belonged to, thinking maybe she was from our church, but maybe the downtown location. She was from another church that I had never heard of before. Suddenly the thought came to me. This was a missionary opportunity. I didn't think that I could suddenly convert her but I did think that I could at least show her that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints are good, kind, charitable people. I thought that maybe I could plant a tiny seed in her heart, if anything. I emailed her back and said that I was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and that since she needed the play pen for her church's nursery that I would give it to her for free. I was a little hesitant because I knew we could use the $25 that we could get if we sold it. I also thought Dave would get upset at my decisions, however, I also knew that I had been praying for opportunities to be more charitable, praying for missionary experiences, and the song "Beacause I have been given much I too must give" sounded in my heart. The woman responded later that night with much gratitude. She came over a few days later to pick it up and left a sweet "thank you" card in my mail box. Hopefully she now has a better view on members of the church and hopefully she told others about her experience.

It's true, Dave and I could have used the money. Dave was a little surprised at my decision but was ok with it when I explained why. The $25 that we could have gotten for the play pen would have paid for diapers or gone towards paying bills, but I have faith that Heavenly Father will bless us so much more.

I want to finish by quoting President Uchtdorf " He doesn’t care one bit if we live in a castle or a cottage, if we are handsome or homely, if we are famous or forgotten. Though we are incomplete, God loves us completely. Though we are imperfect, He loves us perfectly. Though we may feel lost and without compass, God’s love encompasses us completely."

Me Ka Aloha
- Elisabeth

Sleeping Beauties

My Mom is always getting into something new and fun. Once it was puppets, now it's princess dresses. It's pretty awesome because my kids have a great collection of puppets and Rosie now has an adorable princess dress (sorry Joseph, this doesn't benefit you too much). Well any way, I decided to let Rosie try on her dress and she LOVES it! I wasn't sure how she'd react but she kept on saying "pincess dess" and looking at herself in the mirror. She even cried when Dave tried to take it off of her. Now let me just say that I too LOVE the dress. It's made by a company called Little Adventures. They decided to make dresses that were washable, comfortable (no itchy fabric), and easy for kids to put on themselves. My Mom loves them so much that she's become a distributor (yay!!!) Alright, I'm getting off topic. Back to Rosie. Well she loved the dress so much that we let her wear it all day. While Rosie was eating her peanut butter sandwich, she fell asleep. This is a common occurrence in our house. She refusses to take naps and then out of complete exhaustion, falls asleep eating (why while she's eating? It's beyond me). So there she was, dressed like a princess asleep on our couch!

Later on that day I brought Joseph upstairs to change his diaper. I put him down on my bed and gave him some toys to play with as I watched him. He was playing on his tummy but a few minutes later he stopped playing with his toys and put his head down on the bed. He just laid there staring at me with his "lover eyes" he just had this look on his face like "Mommy, you're the love of my life" He laid there, not even blinking, all peaceful for about five minutes until he fell asleep. It was such a cute moment. I wish he would fall asleep gazing into my eyes every day.

I love these little moments so much! Life really is BEAUTIFUL!

Me Ka Aloha

- Elisabeth

Jospeh's First Tooth

For the past few days Joseph has been pretty fussy and clenching his jaw. I could never tell if he was hungry, tired, wanting to play, wanting to be held, or what. Well today I figured it out. He was clenching his jaw again, so I thought to myself "maybe he's teething". Since my hands were freezing cold, I decided to let him chew on my fingers to relieve his pain. That's when I felt his first little tooth. I wasn't really expecting him to get a tooth so soon since Rosie was 11 months when her first tooth appeared. I guess that's yet another difference between them. Now all I have to do is pray that he won't bite me.

Me Ka Aloha

- Elisabeth

Joseph at 7 1/2 Months

It's hard to believe that Joseph is almost 8 months old. Time is just flying by and some how it feels like it's going by faster than when Rosie was a baby (well, she kinda is still a baby). Here's some of the things he's been up to.

Joseph, like Rosie at that age, likes to shake his head back and forth like he's saying "no". He laughs and laughs when he does it. I'm pretty sure babies do that because everything looks crazy when they do. He also laughs at Rosie when she's laughing and he totally cracks up when he looks at the frame with Rosie's baby pictures.

He's also a little grabber. He needs to grab EVERYTHING. Whenever I put him in his exesaucer, I need to be careful that there's nothing dangerous within reach. Today he some how reached over to a dinning room chair and nearly pulled down on himself. He's constantly grabbing my hair or Rosie's hair with his vice grips. Poor Rosie started crying the other day because he had two fist full of her hair and wouldn't let go. It's hard to read him book because he's always trying to grab the book and eat it. When he sees something that he wants to grab onto, he goes for it and nothing can deter him. Earlier today he saw Rosie's sippy cup on the ground. I knew he wanted it so I put him down facing the other direction and gave him a toy to play with. Seconds later he was on his back shaking the juice in Rosie's cup.

Joseph is almost crawling. There's a couple other babies at church that started crawling around 6 months, so I'm sure Joseph will start soon. He's pretty good at getting around by rolling and army crawling but I know he knows there's a better way. He mostly scoots himself backwards, which sometimes gets himself in a pickle. Like today when he crawled backwards under the coffee table and bumped his head. Dave has been trying to "train" him to crawl by helping him up onto his hands and knees and chanting "Joseph, Joseph" over and over again. He loves it when we chant his name. He gets all excited, smiles, and waves his hands and legs.

Joseph has also learned how to say Dada and Mama. He also rolls his Rs, usually when he makes the sound "Darrrr darrr darrrr". Oh and he also says "na na na na". It's so cute to hear his little voice.

Well, he weighs around 25 pounds (maybe even more) and wears size 5 diapers. He's at the stage where he's super chubby, but once he starts crawling he'll thin out. I'll be sure to post picture when the day comes. For now, here a super cute picture of Joseph wearing his winter hat.

Me Ka Aloha (With Love)

- Elisabeth

What's Rosie up to?

Rosie is getting bigger and smarter by the second. She's learning a new word every day, like today she learned how to say Ikea, but it sounds like Ikara (Yes I know, we go there WAY too much). She's just too darn cute with all the stuff she's been saying.

The other day I sneezed and she said "bess do Mommy". She's also been calling me "honey" lately. I'm not really sure where she got it from because Dave calls me "hun". I'm pretty sure she knows she being cute when she says it because every time she does, she giggles. Every morning, Rosie pushes my door open, just wide enough so she can see me, and says "Hi honey! Honey heeping, Dodeph heeping, Daddy heeping." (Mommy sleeping, Joseph sleeping, Daddy sleeping) She's always giving me hugs and saying "honey!".

If she wants someone to wake up she'll say "cock-a-do-doooo wake up!"

Rosie is also great at playing guess the song. I'll hum the tune of a song and she names it, usually within the first 3 seconds.

She's been majorly curious about boxes and things in packages. She'll shake it and even if it isn't something she would want she still hands it to me and says "opid it" (open it).

She's been sleeping in her big girl bed lately and Dave will sleep on a mattress in her room just in case she gets up in the middle of the night. The other day she got up and was feeding Dave imaginary food. Well a few minutes later, she fed Dave Sudocream. I woke up to Dave saying "Oh yucky Rosie, that's not food! Don't feed that to Daddy" as he rushed to the bathroom to wash out his mouth.

My favorite thing that she's been doing lately is that she's being super affectionate. She'll come over to me and ask to be picked up, or she'll hug my leg. She's been climbing on my lap and asking to cuddle and giving all of us kisses. The other day we went grocery shopping and she was starting to get tired. She reached up to be picked up, so I did. Within minutes she was sleeping on my shoulder. Awww she's just so cute! Last Sunday I came downstairs to find Dave and her sleeping on the couch together. I just love that she's being so lovey right now.

Me Ka Aloha
- Elisabeth

What's the difference?

One thing I've learned about my parents and parent-in-laws is that they love to give advice. Sometimes it's money advice, parenting advice, cooking advice, employment advice. Sometimes their advice is really helpful, and other times it can be totally "old school". Like the time they told me to rub a face cloth on my boobs to toughen then up (I didn't listen, thank goodness) However, one piece of advice that I totally agree with is to write down all the cute stuff about your kids. They say even if you think you won't forget, you will. So today as I was taking a nap with Joseph, I thought it would be a good idea to write down all the differences between Rosie and Joseph as babies.

Rosie
weighed 7 pounds 11 ounces at birth
Joseph
weighed 9 pounds 9 ounces at birth
Rosie
First word was "Mama"
Joseph
First word was "Dada"
Rosie
Loved it when we gave her Tylenol, teething tablets, or gripe water. She's smile and lick her lips.
Joseph
Gagged and even threw up when given Tylenol, teething tablets, and we didn't bother giving him gripe water.
Rosie
Breastfed for an hour at least, but after she would sleep for 2-3 hours. Sometimes when we went to church I'd spend 2 out of the 3 hours in the mother's lounge feeding her.
Joseph
Breastfed for 5-10 minutes at a time, but would be hungry half an hour later or sometimes sooner. One night he nursed for SIX hours straight... well with tiny 5 minute breaks here and there. How he did it is beyond me.
Rosie
She only laughed if something was really funny. It was hard to catch her laughing on film. Even when she thought something was funny, she get tired of it fast. We had to constantly come up with new material.
Joseph
He'll laugh if you're laughing. He thinks everything is funny.
Rosie
Very focused on the task at hand. For example, when she was nursing she would sit there and feed until she was done.
Joseph Easily distracted. If someone even sneezes while he's nursing, he'll turn his head to see. Sometimes I find myself saying "Joseph, pay attention! Finish your milk, Mommy is leaking all over!"
Rosie
Loved it when we read books to her. She'd sit there very focused and listening intently.
Joseph
He's more interested in grabbing the book and he tries to eat it.
Rosie
She's cuddly only when the mood strikes her or if she's really tired. When the mood does strike, she's so lovable.
Joseph
We call him lover boy because he's always in the mood for hugs and affection. He's always grabbing my face or resting his head on my shoulder.
Rosie
The new baby smell lasted for a really long time on her. It was so wonderful. Some of her old baby clothing still smells like it.
Joseph
I don't remember him ever having the new baby smell. Actually, his umbilical cord smelt like a dead animal for weeks and he would get stinky spots under his rolls haa haa.
Rosie
Liked sucking on my pinky finger when she was fussy. She could sit there for almost an hour sucking on it until she either fell asleep, or realized there wasn't any milk coming out and ask for the real thing
Joseph
Gagged when I tried to give him my pinky finger. He knew it wasn't the real thing I guess.

There's probably a lot more, but I can't think of them at the moment. I'll discuss with Dave tonight and post more later!

Me Ka Aloha
- Elisabeth