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The Wedding Crasher

Last weekend was my cousin Shannon's wedding. Shannon is a real Do-It-Yourself'er and she had a beautiful wedding. Just a note, she also designed her own wedding dress and had a seamstress in China make it for her at a fraction of the cost the same dress would have been here! Love that ebay...

It was a lovely wedding and everything was Tiffany Blue, including the cake. But I think Isabelle loved the wedding more than anyone ...else. She ran around like a wild woman for the entire reception. Back and forth, back and forth. She danced like crazy everytime the music started. I'm sure she had never heard music like that in her life, and well, in the words of Gloria Estevan, the rhythm is gonna get ya

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Night time Prayers

Conrad and I divide up bedtime duties with the girls each night. This usually looks like me putting Grace to bed and Conrad putting Isabelle to bed. We all used to pray together each night, but as Isabelle has jumped into the toddler stage with both feet, bedtime routine has become more fast and furious and we end up praying with the girls separately before they sleep.

Each night Conrad prays for Isabelle then they pray for Grace and Mommy, then all her grandparents, etc. Then if he doesn’t round out the end of the prayer for Isabelle again, she immediately asks, “What about me?” and you have to pray for her again. So last night, at the end of prayer, Conrad asked Isabelle, “What about me?” So Isabelle prays the following bedtime prayer:
“Dear God, Thank you for good food. Amen.”

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Sisters

At night, before Isabelle goes to bed, she often refuses to give me a goodnight kiss, but she’ll always request to kiss Grace. She calls her Gacie Yu (For some weird reason we call her Gracie Lou and Isabelle is just mimicking us). When she comes down from her bedroom in the mornings, she’ll crawl up next to Grace and say, “Hi Bootiful.” In this soft little “talking to babies” voice that she hears me use when talking to Grace. And Grace just lights up when Isabelle is around. She might as well be a little sunflower following the Sun around. Now if I can only get her to stop sitting on Grace, we could keep Grace’s future therapy sessions to a minimum.

Brookstone Potty Break

Yesterday my parents, Grandma, and Aunt Brenda were visiting us for President’s Day. Isabelle was, of course, in her glory, surrounded by her crowd of admirers. We packed everyone up and traversed to the mall for some fun and shopping. At one point we sat down so I could nurse Grace. Oma, Opa, Aunt Brenda, and Isabelle decided to go to Brookstone to check out their newest gadgets.

When they got to the store, my Dad decided to sit in one of their massage chairs to check it out. Isabelle, who is potty training, came up to him and asked, “What you doing, Opa? Going Potty?” Immediately followed by, “I go potty too.” And started to pull down her pants and pull up’s. My parents all jumped up, “Noooo!” and my mom and Aunt Brenda pulled her out of the store toward the bathrooms, as she’s yelling, “NOOOOOOO!!! Want to go potty with Opa!!!!”

Is she playing Stairway to Heaven?

We wonder if we have a child prodigy on our hands...a musical prodigy would be highly unlikely coming from the decidedly UNmusical family she does. Heck, we don't even have a CD player in our house!

The Reward System

I started getting really overwhelmed with all of the little tasks we were trying to teach Isabelle to do and if I was overwhelmed, I can just imagine what our two year old was feeling. I had also been looking forward to implementing this particular parenting approach that I had heard so many of my mom friends talk about working well for their kids: The Reward Chart.

As I was praying one night: about potty training, no less, I remembered the Chart approach. I got up and threw together a simple chart with a few items on it such as “I went potty today” ,“I took a nap today,” and “I picked up my toys today.” I then ran to the dollar store and bought 1000 stickers for $1. And I have to tell you, it has been working great! She brushes her teeth, pottys, and picks up her toys like a champ, all for the pleasure of choosing and sticking a lil’ sticker.

This last week I added “I read my Bible today.” I know she can’t read yet, but she has a great kids bible and we can read it together every day. And I think there is no better time to build daily QT discipline than now, right? Now, if only I were motivated by stickers….

Giggles of Grace

She's almost laughing!

Slumber Party

Last weekend we had our first “Slumber Party” at the Michael House. We hosted Abby and Lyssa, daughters of our friends, Matt and Denise. These girls grew up in Romania as Missionary Kids and are such good kids! When we first met them, Isabelle was just a baby, and after they left our house, Conrad and I said, “Wow, we have to get child rearing tips from these guys, their kids are great to have around!”

When Denise told me that her and Matt were planning a date night, I invited Abby and Lyssa to come and spend the night with us! We were planning on going bowling, but the bowling alley just wasn’t working with us and had planned “Buck a Beer” night and the alley was full…not to mention probably not exactly our scene with four kids in tow.

We settled for dinner at McDonlads, and back home for movies and cookies. The evening went off without a hitch and Isabelle ADORES these two, as you can see from the look on her face. I think they had fun, not to mention, their mom said they came home having perfected imitating Conrad’s accent. Abby imitates him talking to Isabelle, “You do nothing on the potty, Isabelle. Go now!” Conrad says, “What accent?”

Snow Day

As so many of you from the frozen tundra's of north North America are experiencing, we have been getting tons of snow and freezing temperatures here in Ohio! I have already paid neighborhood kids twice to shovel our driveway and Conrad did it a third time!

This time he did it, we decided to bundle Isabelle up and let her play in the snow. She had a blast! And I can't wait to take her sledding sometime in the near future.

Another Daddy's Girl

It's looking like I might have another Daddy's Girl on my hands...

She Finally Did it!

Just when we were despairing of ever NOT having to change poopy diapers....she did it! Isabelle pooped in the potty! She even told her dad she had to poop...and did it!! She pees all the time in the potty, but never #2. And, she never tells us. We are doing a happy dance today!

Happy Birthday to my Wonderful Husband!

Today is Conrad's 30 something birthday. I wanted to write and share with you how much I love and appreciate this husband in my life, but unfortunately, I can't follow a train of thought for more than a few minutes at a time these days...I wonder if I can still blame that on the kids

I started the celebration by spending the WHOLE evening Thursday making these Key Lime & Coconut cupcakes with White Chocolate frosting. By the time I finished I had zested and squeezed so many limes I thought the cupcakes were gross. Not to mention, the dang white chocolate siezed up, so I was beginning to become quite bitter with this particualr baked good. But, by the time I tasted one today, I do believe it's the best cupcakes I have ever had, or at least made!


Anyway, we began today's celebration by meeting Conrad downtown for lunch at the North Market for our favorite Pad Thai. Isabelle and I had spent the morning wrapping presents and making birthday cards for Daddy. After lunch, I dropped off a couple of dozen birthday cupcakes I had made at his office...after all, I didn't want several dozen cupcakes hangin' around our kitchen!


When Conrad came home, I had made the Hyderabadi special dish, Lam Biryani for dinner and finished it off with, you guessed it, another cupcake. And He opened his present from my parents (and a little from us) which was a new GPS.

And since I know he's in bed for the evening and won't be lurking on our blog, I can safely tell you that I have a massage scheduled for him in the morning after breakfast...We hope you had a great birthday, Baby! You are the best!

The Singin' Paynes

I would just like to take a moment and introduce all of you Yankees to the talented side of my family. My Papaw's brother, Lenard, and his wife Testaview are blue grass singers...matching outfits, southern accents, the whole shebang. Although Testaview married into the Payne family, I'll officially claim her as family talent. She plays the fiddle, the banjo, the dulcimer, the harpiscord, and from what I hear, just about any instrament she has ever picked up.

Also a noteworthy fact about this branch of the Payne family is that they are in thier 70's and just about more tech savvy than my teenage cousins! Thier videos are uploaded on facebook, you can buy thier tracks on My Space, and View is my "friend" on facebook. I thought you'd all like to hear one of their songs. I also thought I'd post a little video of Isabelle dancing in her Halloween costume to one of thier songs a year or so ago...she's a big fan of bluegrass...

Aarons Christening

Our nephew Aaron was born just three weeks after Grace. He was born early, but is nice and healthy now. Last sunday was his christening, and we thought we would share some pictures that our family shared with us. Aaron is the little bundle wrapped in white!


This is Aaron's Godmother holding him, my sister in law Sudha. And Aaron's mother, Anthony Mary is on the left. Also pictured is Conrad's cousin Suzanna.

This picture is Conrad's mom, Suzanna, and our two older nephews, Alistair and Arnold(Aarons older brother) and our neice, Alana. In the background is Conrad's Aunt, whom we call Chiti, Which means mother's younger sister.

Washer Woes

The weekend before I started back to work I was trying to catch up on chores. I had about eight loads of laundry to do, all spread out and sorted on the laundry room floor when we noticed a trail of water leaking into the kitchen from the laundry room.

We went into the laundry room to see the steady stream growing into a pond! Indeed, our hand me down, hand me down, hand me down washer had finally broken. So we sopped up water and sopped up water, and then we went to lowes. We found a very good deal on a front loader washer, and thanks to my mom and dad's christmas gift of a lowes gift certificate, had a good start toward buying it.


It was delivered a couple of days later and our clothes were saved! Then, only a week and a half after we got our new washer, I did two loads of clothes. The next morning I got up to discover our pipes had frozen to our washer!

To add insult to injury...our pc, printer, and router are not working properly, and the car needs new tires...*sigh* always all at once, you know??

Pray for Tata

Last week we got a rather upsetting phone call. It seems that Conrad's Dad had been concerned because he lost his appetite, then, as a result, had lost some weight. He's already a thin man, so they were worried. He went to the doctor, who after running some tests, suspected there was some cancer. He then went to a specialist, who diagnosed him with Lung Cancer.

He is currently in the hospital with some breathing issues and will be receiving some kind of treatment this week. The medical system in India is not quite like it is here, so it's been difficult getting more specific informaiton on how he is doing.

Needless to say, we were stunned and upset by this news. Conrad's Dad is in his 70's, but has been rather healthy for his age. It's hard on Conrad to be so far away from his family, especially now. We are working on getting a passport for Grace. We will probably be making a trip in the next couple of months. Please agree with us in prayer for healing for Isabelle and Grace's Tata.

Fancy Feet

At our house we have some fancy feet going on. Last weekend Isabelle had her first pedicure (from mommy, of course.) And this is the result. Please note the smear of hot pink nail polish on the floor next to her foot. This is one of many around the house. Oh well, that’s what you get when you put nail polish on a two year old! Now she always wants her sox off so she can see her "Pretty toes." It took me a while to figure out what she was asking for....

And although we didn’t put nail polish on Gracie, this is a picture of her nifty new sox that have argyle giraffes on them. And her matching outfit and hat. It’s one of my favorites from Christmas…thanks Aunt Bev and Uncle Mick!

My First Day Back

Tuesday was my first day back at the office. Consequently, the LONGEST time I have ever been away from Grace. I have to admit, it was nice being back at work. It was really nice to see my co-workers and catch up. And I spent the day in meetings and sorting through my extensively back logged email. But all in all a relaxing day away from full time motherhood. I have to say kuddos to all of you full time moms. Your job is certainly harder than mine!

I am really excited about only working part time. I think it will be absolutely perfect. I think being at home full time with young children, you can really start to “grind your gears.” Not to mention it’s just enough time at work that I don’t resent my job and have a great appreciation for all of the wonderful people and perks the job offers. And I think Conrad was quite relieved I wasn’t crying or surly for a week after

One perk I’ll share with you today (because I am really excited about it!) is our “Pumping Rooms.” My office has two rooms where working moms who breast feed can go to pump. They have recliners and cd players and magazines…and these massive old fashion hospital grade pumps that work WAY better than any pump I have ever used, including the hospital pump I’ve rented before. They also provide each mother with their own set of personal equipment to use with the pump. Not to mention, my manager (who is a lactation consultant by trade) is really supportive of the whole pumping situation. At this point in my life, this is a huge perk and I’m not sure there could be any better scenario.

Back to the kids, tho. When we got home at night to pick up Isabelle and Grace at the sitters, Isabelle had had a good day playing with the kids and the babysitter has a two year old little girl, so they were fast friends. And Grace seemed to do well too, with being bottle fed and took a couple of nice long naps. We like their new baby sitter and they (and us!)came home nice and tired after a day of new routine.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho...

This coming Tuesday will mark Grace's three month birthday and it is also the end of my maternity leave. Meaning, back to work I go! A few of you have asked if I am going back to work, since I wrote a few "Stay at Home Mom" posts. The answer is yes, but I'm only going back three days a weekI have pretty mixed feelings. On one hand, the girls start a new daycare, which was probably more tramatizing for Conrad and I than for Isabelle. We were pretty choked up on her last day of the old daycare a couple of weeks ago. She was like, "Huh? Whatever..."

Also, I have never been away from Grace for more than two hours and that only one time. I am dreading the whole pumping ordeal, but really really don't want to wean her so early. I am also slightly concerned that she will stop wanting to nurse after she gets a bottle...but pumping we shall do!

On the OTHER hand, it will be nice to have a little bit of independence, and dare I say, "alone" time as my job requires a bit of travel. I think I'll cherish those hours in the car alone like never before! I have already pulled out the ole' iPod and am looking forward to catching up on all of my favorite talk radio.

I don't think it will be as traumatic as it was leaving Isabelle the first day, week...months...because I feel extremely blessed to be able to work part time. It seems like the Lord really set me up over the past few years to be able to do this. Several times I have tried to get other jobs or even other positions within the same organization, but never got the job. And if I had, chances that this schedule would have worked out are slim.

So, happy three month's Gracie!

Lil' Betty

Here is our little Betty Crocker whipping up somethin tasty in her kitchen from Oma and Opa. I think it's also appropriate to give a shout out (and HUGE thanks) to Peg who spent much of her christmas day helping me put this thing together, We made it to step 14 before the second and third shifts took over to take it all the way home to step 23! Urgggg...christmas toys. Also notice the too cute apron she's sporting, from Granny Payne.