hooray!

Is it Quincy from Little Einsteins ("Eintimes,") who says, "I cannot believe it!"? That's what I'm saying tonight. It's not yet 9:15, and Lauren Clay is asleep. No tears tonight. I did have to put her back to bed 7 times... but the first 5 times were in the first 5 minutes and the last two came about 15 minutes apart. It took her some time to fall asleep (maybe 45 minutes), but she did it on her own. I did sit in her room and read a magazine, but I figure it's a good compromise from what our evenings used to look like. A couple of times I had to respond to her (she took off a wet diaper, so I put on a dry one; then she brought her empty sippy cup over to me when she finished her water. Each time I interacted with her, I was very matter-of-fact and didn't look at her. It's not easy, but I've learned these past few nights that she is working very hard to engage me, and when she does, I can expect her to respond with tears and jumping out of bed 3 or 4 times.) My next step is to kiss her goodnight and leave the room, but I'm thrilled with where we are now. I don't mind the reading thing, either; I've been able to finish a book and catch up on lots of magazine reading the past few nights. Actually, that would probably be a good time to read my Bible.

We had a fun day today. Spent the bulk of it with Uncle Jon and Suzi.
-We went to Georgetown for lunch in the "caf" with Grandaddy, Ga Ga, Jeana, and Robin (Lauren Clay took off running toward them as soon as she spotted them. That's big progress, too... it used to take a while for her to warm up to extended family in a setting like that.) Here she is eating a brownie with Robin (dad's brother):

Lauren Clay ran over to this bench after lunch and sat in it like she wanted us to take a picture. Jon and Suzi hopped into the pose:

The matriarch with her boys:

A young Marilyn Monroe?

We stopped by Poppy Joe's house for a visit. Miles stopped by, too. (Lauren Clay was pretty reserved around him, but she finally warmed up to him enough to yell over and over, "Hi, Gaston!" as we sat on the porch and he talked in the yard with Jon and Suzi.) I don't have pictures from that stop, but I do have one that Miles took with his iPhone after he and a friend dressed Poppy Joe up last Sunday. All I can say is that my grandad is a trooper. I think next Miles wants him to pose in front of Poppy Joe's new Cadillac.

I was sad to leave the Oldhams' tonight at 7:30-- which was actually later than I'd planned to leave-- because I feel like I should spend as much time as possible with Jon and Suzi while they're here. I was a little sad that we'd started tackling this sleep issue the week they are here AND the week of the first football game, but we just couldn't keep putting this off. There's never a good time to start something like this, just like there's never a good time to cut out junk food or start an exercise regimen. Now that we're moving on it, though, I am determined to see it through. Actually, at this point, it's almost like an experiment, and I don't want to give up now that we're into it. I also don't want to have to go through another night like we had Monday night... that's enough to scare anyone into sticking to the plan once it's in place and improving each day.

progress

Before I give tonight's bedtime report, I need to say that this third night was not perfect, but it was better than last night, and totally different than two nights ago. At least it keeps me optimistic that we're on our way to calm evenings at a decent hour... sooner rather than later.

Long story short (no need to give lots of details tonight): Lauren Clay fell asleep at 9:15, and we put her in bed for the first time at 8:15. I did have to return her to her bed over 20 times, but she barely cried at all throughout that hour. We had a few whimpers and a couple of times she let out a wail, but nothing major and nothing lasting longer than a minute or so. That in itself is progress. To those of you who are battling bedtime, take heart. Persistence and consistency do pay off quickly.

I'm getting lots of spiritual lessons in this bedtime process, although they're all sort of swimming in my mind and this is the first I'm attempting to articulate them. One thing that's been on my heart the past few days is how my prayers and my actions have been incongruent for a while in relation to sleeping patterns. I have often prayed for wisdom in helping Lauren Clay to sleep (and in helping us to have sane evenings), but I have not had the discipline to do what I knew needed to be done. It's like I was praying, "God, please help her sleep in spite of me and our sporadic evening schedule." Kind of like a person who says, "God, get me out of debt... even though I'm going to continue to dish out money for a car I can't afford and I'm going to continue to run up my credit card bill because a budget is too restricting." Or a person who says, "God, please make me lose weight... but I'm going to eat whatever I want, whenever I want and exercise only when it's convenient." At some point, we have to take responsibility and be disciplined. The process isn't always comfortable, but the payoff is oftentimes the answer to our prayers.

Ugh... there's a loud storm outside right now. Hopefully this won't wake our sleeping child. The latest clap of thunder caused ME to jump. So far she's remained asleep...

Uncle John and Suzi are in town now, and Lauren Clay is thrilled that they are here. She took to them as if no time had passed since the last time we saw them. We look forward to a fun day tomorrow (hopefully with pictures to post!)

update

Wow. I don't think we've ever stuck to our guns with the sleeping ordeal two nights in a row. Now that we've survived a second night of getting into a healthy nighttime routine, I'm more optimistic that things will be calm and under control by week's end. Tonight was a world of difference from last night. I journaled the evening just to pass the time (and try to keep my sanity), and I'm sharing the journal because it is wildly different from last night. Not perfect, but so much better.

7ish: Lauren Clay takes a bath. Throughout the bath, I tell her a few times that next we'd brush teeth, then we'd read books, then we'd cuddle a few minutes, then she'd be going to bed. John came in and gave goodnight kisses after her bath. He also washed the dishes tonight... THANKS, JOHN!
7:30ish: Read 2 books in her chair (one was her choice: Beauty and the Beast; one was my choice: Hooray for Fish. That's a great book, by the way. Here's a link to it:
http://www.amazon.com/Hooray-Fish-Lucy-Cousins/dp/1844280225/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-0633118-9995602?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1188355257&sr=8-1 )
8:00ish: The intention was to cuddle with her for just a few minutes, but she wouldn't get into my lap in the chair (she stood in front of the chair while I read to her.) I tried cuddling in her bed, too, but she was wanting to read another book or play or whatever... so I just gave her a kiss goodnight, told her I loved her, told her we'd read more books and play in the morning.
8:15: I leave the room. She gets up 5 times and I put her back to bed 5 times. (The first two times I remind her that it's time to go to bed, and that she needs to stay in it. After that, I don't talk to her or make eye contact... I just put her back to bed.)
8:17: The crying begins... but she does not immediately get out of her bed when I stick her back in it.
8:21: She'd gotten out of bed 18 times since 8:17. Most of the time, she would go straight to our room. The first 8 times she said, "I want daddy's bed" as she shot out of her room. The last 10 times she said, "I want cuddle bug." At this point, I was getting worn out, so I sat on the stool by her door to block the exit.
8:23: I wrote: "Crying sounds fake now, and stops at times! She hasn't gotten out of bed since I moved into her room. I am looking at her fish, not at her. I counted 24 snails." (Those crazy snails!! Just a few weeks ago I removed close to 20, and could only see about 5 still in the tank. They multiply like mad.)
8:29: Still in bed. Crying stopped, but she was still awake.
8:31: Lying down, but still awake. "Looks like she is SELF SOOTHING! Singing ABCs, running her finger along the bed rail, looking at the fish, looking out the window."
8:49: She says, "mommy? mommy?" I tell her it's time to go to sleep and her bottom lip sticks out. She starts asking for different things once I've engaged in conversation, so I leave the room. She cried and got out of bed. I returned to her room and she calmed down immediately. I eventually got up and got a book to read (she was fine while I was up getting the book.) I sat in her chair and read until she fell asleep. She got out of bed two times while I read, but each time she just gathered something up from the floor and returned to the bed on her own. Wow. A couple of times she said, "mommy... mommy...," and I just kept reading. She didn't persist, just went back to quietly playing with her bunny rabbit and duck in her bed until...
9:45: She fell asleep peacefully!

That's still a little late for a 2-year old, but MUCH better than last night. Of course, she had a nearly-three-hour nap this afternoon (woke up at about 4:45), so she was pretty well rested going into bedtime (she's typically up before 4, and often 3:00.) I'll give another update tomorrow and I am pretty confident we'll have great news to report. Of course, my brother comes to town tomorrow, so we'll have to be careful not to let the huge progress get lost in a late night of visiting...

Now for some precious things Lauren Clay did today:
-She made a bed for Mickey and Goofy next to the couch. I found the two dolls napping there during the day.
-At lunch I asked her who would be visiting us tomorrow. She replied, "Uncle Jon!" (I was shocked that she knew the answer!) She got to talk to her Uncle Jon today, and she did have a conversation with him (usually she just listens.)
-Before bed, she sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to John Tyler. I was a little sad to hear her correctly sing, "like a diamond in the sky..."
-She ate a whole piece of spinach and mushroom quiche I made last night and a whole tomato out of Beth and Steve's garden. I wonder if Ty will be such an adventurous-- and healthy-- eater?
-When John (daddy) called today, she got on the phone and said, "hi daddy. I wanna ride dad's back." She loves to ride on John's back. Also, as she was eating dinner, we heard a car door close outside and she squealed, "DADDY'S HOME!" I love that she looks forward to his return from work!

I'm sure there's more to report, but I've also got a few things I need to take care of before bed. Thanks for reading this long and drawn-out entry. I know the entries with pictures are so much more fun...

circus, etc.

Yesterday we joined mom and dad for the circus... what a FUN afternoon we had! Lauren Clay seemed to enjoy it, even though she couldn't appreciate how dangerous it has to be to drive 7 motorcycles in a sphere that doesn't look big enough for driving 1, how tough it is to train a cat (both a house cat and an enormous white tiger), and how strong/ coordinated/ brave/ crazy someone has to be to do a flip off one trapeze and catch himself by the feet on another trapeze. A very exciting and enjoyable show.

For the pre-show entertainment, we could walk down on the floor and get close to the clowns and the animals that were going to appear in the show. We were not close enough to pet the animals, although I'm sure mom would have jumped at the chance to give the elephant a hug.

Goofy joined us for the circus (he's still her favorite.) Usually when we get out of the car, she'll say, "Goofy, stay here." Before the circus, we asked if Goofy could stay, and she said, "Goofy go to the circus." The first few pictures below are from the pre-show:

Here's Lauren Clay with Grandmother's binoculars (most of the time she preferred to look through them the wrong way.)

Our little baby is not a little baby anymore. Doesn't she look big in this picture?


And to completely change the subject:
Tonight we began the journey of getting Lauren Clay on a consistent, early and healthy sleeping schedule. She's been in her own room now for a couple of weeks, but not without a lot of cajoling, cuddling and, at times, me spending most of the night in her room. I think if Supernanny were to visit our home, she'd be pretty happy with our positive communication, Lauren Clay's healthy eating, the activities we do, and the daily schedule that we-- more or less-- follow. But we'd fail miserably with bedtime. I could see that the bedtime "routine" was being met with more and more manipulation tactics each night, so we decided there's no time like the present to tackle bedtime. We also know that every time we give in and cuddle her to sleep, we only teach her that if she wails long enough and wears us thin enough, that she'll get her way eventually... which is an awful pattern to break. I'm promised by every sleep book I've ever read that persistence is critical and 3 days will break any bad cycles that have developed. I'm not very confident that we'll turn things around in three days, but we're not going to give up until we've persevered for at least 2 weeks.

Tonight I was oh-so-close to giving in. We started the bedtime routine at 6: Lauren Clay took a bath, spent a few minutes playing quietly with daddy, she brushed her teeth, put on PJs, and then I sat down to read with her at 7. I was planning to leave her room by 7:30 or so, but I was okay with 8:00, since that is closer to her normal bedtime. At 7:45, the pattern started: "I wanna turn off the light," "I wanna look outside," "I want daddy," "I want Henry," "I want Goofy, Mickey, Daisy..." 'I wanna get down and find daddy..." As soon as she started out of bed, the struggle began. That's actually been the pattern lately, although it usually plays out with tears and eventually ends up with me cuddling her to sleep when she's decided she's ready for "cuddle bug." Tonight, John and I worked as a team to a) keep putting her in bed when she hopped out every 15 seconds or so, and b) encourage each other to stick to our resolve no matter how much her pleading tugged at our hearts. Hopefully tomorrow night will be better. Actually, it can't be much worse: she finally gave up and fell asleep at 10:25 tonight. I'll give an update tomorrow night to see if we have improvement.

I kind of feel like when I get a caffeine headache (this is an especially interesting analogy, because it usually takes me 3 days to get past getting a headache if I am in the habit of drinking caffeinated drinks.) If I get that awful headache and realize it's because I've become dependent on caffeine, I usually decide that day to push through the headache and wean myself. I know that a cup of coffee or a Coke will take away the headache, but I push through the pain because I know that if I feed the habit, it'll only prolong getting over it.

For whatever reason, we decided that tonight was the night we'd clean up the bedtime routine, so we pushed through even when it was really really tough, with the hope that tomorrow will be easier and that by the day after tomorrow, we'll see the light at the end of the tunnel.

baby shower

Today Mel and I threw the shower for baby Sherrard. Here's the table that we set:

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the whole group, and I don't have any of the expectant mom. Maybe Mel will e-mail me one so I can post it...

In the meantime, here are some pictures we took as we ate breakfast this morning. Lauren Clay and John went out to get McDonald's, and Lauren Clay devoured the food. Besides the gravy, her breakfast was pretty healthy, and she enjoyed every bite (so much so that we couldn't resist bringing out the camera to capture the scene!) Here she's drinking milk:

and eating her fruit and yogurt parfait:



I think John intended to share the fruit and yogurt, but she didn't leave him very much!

John was a huge help getting the shower ready today and watching Lauren Clay while I scurried around to do all the last-minute stuff. More later... we need to go pick up Henry!

thoughts

It's late again... or is 3:15 a.m. super-early? We did Picnic with the Pops tonight, and I fell asleep while singing "tie it in a knock" to Lauren Clay when we got home. I woke up to milk in the fridge, thanks to John. I needed it to bake the cake Mel and I are serving at a shower we're hosting tomorrow, and I didn't realize I needed milk for the recipe until Lauren Clay was asleep this afternoon. She didn't wake up until we were pulling into our parking place at Pops, so I didn't have a chance to get any. I am now waiting for the cake to finish baking so I can go back to bed. Blogging will keep me from falling asleep and burning the cake.

I have some fun pictures from tonight's Pops. Our theme was Singing Bee, and the silly headbands are supposed to be antennae. The best scenes weren't captured on film, unfortunately. Those were:
-when Lauren Clay joined her aunt Jeana and Uncle Robin to walk over and meet Patrick the horse who'd wandered with his owner to the edge of the pops tables.
-when Lauren Clay decided she'd had enough with her clothes and stripped down to her shoes. Thankfully, it was pitch black outside at that point, but it was still not appropriate! We had to put up a fight to at least get a diaper back on her so she could jump rope (which was made from those glow-in-the-dark necklaces) with Conner.

Conner's doing forward rolls now, and Lauren Clay tried her hardest to do one, too. She did them well with help, but didn't do a bad job of rolling on her own. She was not ready to leave the excitement when we headed out a little after intermission (just after 10 pm.) I would have liked to have stayed until the end, too, but I was having a hard time getting my pregnant belly into a comfortable position, and-- although Ty was positioned on my bladder-- I did not want to use the porta-potties.

As I was mixing up the cake batter a little while ago, AIR1 ran a James Dobson radio spot on self esteem. It reminded me of something God placed on my heart a couple weeks ago while Lauren Clay and I were out for a morning walk:

I was praying for family, starting with John, then moving to Lauren Clay and Ty. I prayed that our children would have healthy self esteem and a good self image, but as I prayed that, I felt a tug on my heart and felt God's voice slow me down and redirect the prayer. What does it mean to have a good self image? The more I thought about it, the more I saw that "good self image" isn't God's intention for us. Any focus on self is unhealthy, or at least has the potential to be. We are healthiest when our gaze is set on our Creator and off of ourselves. And the best part of it is that God tells us He created us in His image. We learn to view ourselves as He intended as we build a relationship with Him. Healthy self image is not about me... it's losing me in who He is. So my prayer changed as God spoke that to my heart. I don't want good self esteem or self image for my kids. I pray that John and I can model what it means to be lost in His image. To walk in the promise that, at salvation, we were made perfect, and that God continues to make us holy. In HIS image.

Okay... the cake is done and I have GOT to get sleep!

SAY brah... nah RAHN hah...ah nah rahn HAH doe

Those were the words we featured in Spanish this week: zebra, orange (the fruit) and orange (the color.) Lauren Clay was the off-task kid this week. We essentially walled the kids into the den so there were no toys to distract them from the songs and story, but Lauren Clay kept escaping and heading into her room to jump on the bed, hide the fruits, and tempt the others to join her. She usually sits quietly in my lap for Spanish, but-- oh boy-- she was a handful. And that was BEFORE Mel and I started icing cookies and she ingested who-knows-how-much sugar. I hope to post some pictures from today. Kristina took some, and at least one is of Lauren Clay, face down next to the baby gate, with the other kids standing around her asking why she's so sad. Lauren Clay does not like barriers.

After we snacked on naranjas (thanks, Karen, for providing the snack!), we decided to let the kids go to the back room to play. It was like opening a gate with cattle trying to push through. The kids exploded into the kitchen and ran to the playroom. They were screaming, squealing, and running... Lauren Clay just headed to the back of the room and jumped up and down for a while. We eventually headed into the heat and let the kids play in the sandbox... and that finally calmed them down. We're missing Nick and Nalaney in this picture.

I love all the activity. I enjoy having a lot of life in the house. It maybe gets a little overwhelming when my child is leading the pack to jump on the bed, crawl onto the dining room table (she's never done that until today), and then throws a fit when I pick her up to "help teach" Spanish. I'm getting too pregnant to hoist up 30 pounds of HYPER.

Fridays are really just a loud and crazy play date, with a little bit of educational stuff squeezed into the mix. It's fun (and a little amazing) that people keep coming back for more, and that Riley yells "amarillo" when a yellow car passes, and Ben told his granddad that a "mono" eats a "banana" when Amy mentioned they were going to Spanish. I also noticed precious Nalaney mouthing the words to the "buenos dias" song today. And Nick is working on his fourth language? And Kristina and Libby build on the week's theme to do all kinds of supplemental stuff. And I'm learning how different (and yet how similar) it is to teach toddlers instead of teenagers and adults.

Lauren Clay just fell asleep for her nap. She usually goes down between 11:30 and 12:30. Today she didn't fall asleep until 4:15. I actually thought we were going to miss the nap completely because she was not showing signs of being sleepy. She pulled out the chopsticks and straws and made designs on the floor, she used a rubber band to make silly noises, she read about "Junah (Jonah), who was 'so so sad'... sorry [God], I was so so bad." She visited with Ga Ga and Jeana when they stopped by, she played "gotcha" with Henry," she never asked for me to turn on the TV, and she never had a meltdown. She finally fell asleep when we sat down and checked e-mail. Dad had forwarded me a video of a guy making shadow-shapes to Louie Armstrong's "Wonderful World." I played it once, and Lauren Clay asked to see it again. She was asleep before the 2-minute song was over the second time. And now I am struggling to stay awake long enough to post this entry...

language, language, language

With much of my undergrad and graduate work in linguistics, I have long dreamed of the day when I can watch language develop first hand with my own child. As I've written in recent posts, I am very thankful that I can stay home with Lauren Clay this semester and enjoy the development myself (instead of paying someone else to have all the fun.) Her language changes daily. I feel like her vocabulary is growing exponentially now. It's exciting... although sad at the same time, because she's starting to correctly pronounce some of the words that have all been so cute to all of us. Such as:
Dandaddy is now Gran-da-daddy
Nonnonner is now Gramother (although she goes back and forth on this one.)
Itis is now Ice Cream

But...
Stroller is still Sloter
Chocolate is still Shlocket
Pluto is still Quado
Eyore is still Hee-or (that's a new one, as of today.)

One thing that is a bit challenging is figuring out what she's saying when I have no context to help me. She now gets something on her mind (like something she wants to eat or wear or do or sing) and we spend countless minutes trying to negotiate what it is she is trying to communicate. Once I figure out what she's saying, it makes perfect sense... but until that point, it's frustrating to both of us that I can't immediately grasp what she's telling me. A couple nights ago, she asked me to sing "Oh sure." Turns out, she was asking me to sing the second song on the Beauty and the Beast CD... at the start of the song lots of townspeople say, "bonjour." She calls the third song on the CD "Odd itoo." Oh, and she likes to sing "Do your ears hang low...", but she tells us, "I wanna sing 'tie it in a knock'."

Lauren Clay and I joined a Bunco friend to play today, and she (Carrie) invited a friend she'd met through swimming lessons. The new friend lives probably 1/4 mile from our house, she studied Spanish/English comparative literature in grad school, she's studied in Spain and lived in Uruguay and she's run (among others) the Buenos Aires marathon. Wow... what a cool neighbor! Lauren Clay was less than cooperative playing with the two boys (some days she shares well... today she refused to share), but the play date was a fun one, and I'm glad to meet a new friend.

torrential tuesday

I didn't know it was supposed to rain today, but the storms hit around 8:30 this morning and didn't dissipate until late afternoon. We planned to do some errands today, but I decided not to get out in the ugly weather, so we stayed home and did rainy day stuff. We didn't turn on the TV until about 3:15 when I needed to check e-mail and Lauren Clay was begging for Snow White (her favorite Dwarf is Dopey... go figure.)

Anyway, we decided to paint the salt/flour fruits we made to go with the Spanish book we've been reading. It was a messy affair, but we had a good time doing it, and Lauren Clay has enjoyed playing with the fruits now that they're colorful. We read the book ("Tindi, Nandi," as she calls it) and she pretended to be different animals grabbing the fruit out of the basket.

Here she is painting the guayaba. Notice the shirt she is wearing. It's a hand-me-down from the Bradleys and she adores it. We've pulled it out of the dirty clothes twice now because she insists on wearing it all the time: "I want sleeping beauty shirt!"


Here's what the table looked like once we finished our work:


Here's a picture of a scene that melts my heart. Lauren Clay ran into the bedroom and pulled 2 pillows off the bed, then brought them into the back room. She yelled for John, "DADDY! DAD!" as she patted the pillow on the left, asking him to watch Snow White with her. When he had to get up, she kept saying, "Daddy! Cuddle bug!" as she patted that pillow. She's now following him around the house. So sweet!

sunday, lovely sunday

We love Sunday mornings. We love to cuddle as a family before getting up and getting the day started. Usually Lauren Clay crawls into bed with us before we wake up, but this morning she slept later than we did. Instead of coming straight to our room when she woke up, Lauren Clay yelled, "mommy, I wanna turn the light on." Within a few seconds, we heard the light next to her bed click on. Over the next few minutes, she turned it off and on, off and on, off and on... Every once in a while she'd tell us what she was about to do: "Daddy, I wanna turn the light off." Even more sweet than the playtime, was the fact that she was happy to hang out on her own in her own room first thing in the morning. Looks like we're making progress on the sleeping front!

Lauren Clay finally talked to the baby today. Up to this point she has only told us there is a tiny baby in my belly. This morning she said, "hi, Ty" and "I love you, Ty." She also sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Criss Cross Apple Sauce. I've probably written before how she sings these songs, but it's worth repeating:
(She has most of Twinkle Little Star just right)
...up above the world so high,
diamond sky, diamond sky...

Cwiss, cwoss applesauce
siders cwalling upa back
cwalling here, cwalling here
siders cwalling ina hair.
cool breeze... tight squeeze...
now you've got the CHIGGERS!

She often forgets the cool breeze and tight squeeze, but she never forgets the part about the chiggers (which should actually be shivers!)

This morning I made John and Lauren Clay's favorite breakfast: eggs, bacon, "graybee", and biscuits (actually, we cheated on the biscuits-- John ran out and picked them up at McDonald's.) Once Lauren Clay knew we were having gravy, she would not stop saying, "I want graybee, I want graybee, I want graybee..." until it was ready. It's not the healthiest breakfast, but I figure it's okay since she's such a healthy eater otherwise. Last night she had sea bass (and was sad when it was all gone) and devoured the steamed asparagus and slaw (papa's recipe with fresh tomatoes from the neighbors) we had with it for dinner.

We spent a couple of hours this afternoon celebrating Poppy Joe and Grandmother Doris' birthdays at the nursing home. The whole crew came-- Keith and Kitty, Abby, Matt and Kelly, Jeb, Patty and Aunt Martha, the Meehan Crew, and the Oldhams. Even a couple of residents joined us.

We've decided that Lauren Clay's coping mechanism in a crowd is to take a nap. Just like yesterday at the party for dad's side of the family, Lauren Clay fell asleep within 10 minutes of joining the crowd. She gets very shy and clingy, then just falls asleep. In this first picture, she is cuddling with mom. Megan is in the background helping Grandmother open gifts.

In this shot Patty and Poppy Joe are opening the gift dad brought over: an SEC sweater vest. My favorite part of this picture is what's going on to the left of Poppy Joe. Miles is in Aunt Martha's lap having her tickle his face as he talks on the phone. For as long as I can remember, Miles has always been on the lookout for good tools for a face/neck/back tickle. Aunt Martha needs no tools-- she has the magic touch. When we were young, we'd all line up for her to tickle our backs.

You can't tell from the picture above, but Miles has his feet propped up on Martha's lap in that shot. Below, he's repositioned to get more tickles from his mom. Guess what he did when he left the party? He had an appointment for a massage...

Below are the Stephens girls. Aunt Kitty brought Lauren Clay a gift today: a full Sleeping Beauty outfit and a flower wand. Lauren Clay wore the princess shoes out shopping this afternoon, and she's kept a tight hold on the wand (she calls it the queen because of the sound it makes.) I'll try to get a picture of her when she's dressed in the full Sleeping Beauty outfit. When I asked Lauren Clay who we were going to see today, she remembered I'd told her Aunt Kitty would be at the party and she said, "Kitty Cat."

And he shall be called...

It's official: we're naming the baby John Tyler Sampson. We haven't decided what we'll call him yet, but we're happy with most combinations. Could be
Ty
Tyler
John Tyler
JT

The only thing we're going to avoid is simply "John." We have way too many Johns among our family and close friends, and we don't want to add to the confusion of which John we're talking about. Among family I already have to say "husband John", "brother Jon", and "Kimberly's husband, John." I don't want to have to add "son John" or "baby John" to that mix.

So, there you have it... two and a half months before the due date! We kept Lauren Clay's name a secret until the day she was born; we figured we'd change things up and go ahead and tell this name. Lauren Clay has been referring to my belly as "tiny baby," so with a name we can help her connect with baby before his arrival. If we have a third, maybe we'll just wait to find out the sex until his/her birthday so we'll all be guessing up to the end.

Onto a different note, we are having lots of potty success the past couple weeks. I think it was this past Wednesday that Lauren Clay ran in and produced more than pee pee in the potty. She was quite proud, squealing, "mommy, come look!!" Tonight we had a similar success. After going pee pee, she said her belly hurt and asked to put her diaper on. Instead of doing that, I distracted her by having her wash her hands... and within a couple of minutes she was running back to the potty. Potty training has been so much easier than I expected. I've just let Lauren Clay lead the way. If she's not wearing a diaper, she runs to the potty when she needs to. We're not having much success with panties yet (I think she assumes that if she's wearing anything, it'll work like a diaper.) I figure the panties will come with time... and hopefully they'll come before baby. It would be nice on the budget to have just one in diapers.

annual family picnic

We spent most of the afternoon at mom and dad's for the annual summer picnic with dad's side of the family. We were especially blessed to meet Savannah and to get to see Hunter's growing tummy. Hunter's having a girl in January, so she is following the pattern of all the other second cousins (having a girl first.) I intended to take a picture of all the first-born girls in the family (Lilia, Eliza, Lauren Clay, Savannah, and Hunter's daughter-to-be) but I didn't get around to it in time. Plus, Eliza wasn't there and Lauren Clay slept through more than an hour of the party.

I actually don't have many pictures from the party. Maybe family will e-mail me some good shots to post.

Here's a picture of Lauren Clay watching Mickey Mouse "House House" on our bed. Goofy's wearing one of baby's new onesies. She put it on him yesterday. As she pulled his head through the top, she said, "where's Goofy?"...then she said, "where's Goofy's hand?" as she pulled it through the arm hole. Precious.


On the way to the party, Lauren Clay pulled out the kitty cat purse from Ga Ga. Here Lauren Clay is putting on the lip balm that was in the purse... even using the mirror like a pro! You probably can't tell from the picture, but she applied the lip gloss to her whole face.
Isn't this one adorable? John knows how to take a great picture.


Here are the two expectant moms in the family! We should have taken a side shot. This picture doesn't show my bulging belly very well. Thankfully, it doesn't show my thick ankles either. I cruised through most of this hot, steamy weather without any swelling, but the past few days I've noticed that my ankles get bigger and bigger throughout the day. Propping up my feet helps tremendously...

Spanish

Today's Spanish crew was all boys (except Lauren Clay.) Here are 4 of the 5 kids who came this week. Logan joined us, but didn't make it into the picture. Every week I have good intentions of taking pictures when all the kids are playing, but something goes wrong with the camera. Last week I couldn't find the camera (and the picture would have been precious with 6 kids wearing yellow, holding monkey stuffed animals and eating bananas), and this week the batteries died just as I was trying to snap a picture. I pulled this picture off Karen's blog...thanks! As I write this entry, Lauren Clay is calling out the names of all the kids in the picture. I didn't know she knew all the names without any hints!

I don't know how much the other kids have been saying in Spanish at home, but Lauren Clay is starting to come up with lots of words without my prodding. Today when she saw a picture of a pineapple, she pointed to it and said, "piña!" Also, when I sing, "Juanito cuando baila," she takes over with "baila, baila, baila." Last night she was asking each of us, "¿Cómo estás?" Her accent is great. I love it.

did I say we were having reprieve from the heat???

I guess it was either a relatively mild morning yesterday during our walk, or pregnancy is really throwing off my sense of temperature, because the past two days we have had record-breaking temps. We hit the 100 degree mark yesterday, and today's heat index is supposed to make it to 105. Not sure how I felt comfortable on a walk on the hottest day of year, but I'm not complaining. Just wanted to post a disclaimer for those of you who think I'm crazy for calling near-100 degree weather pleasant.

Update: We went to the pool with Grandaddy and Grandmother (Lauren Clay is now calling her "Grandmother" instead of Nonnonner), and our first storm in weeks moved in soon after we arrived. The temperature dropped super-quickly-- from 101 to the mid-70's in a matter of minutes! We ended up with mild temperatures yesterday afterall, but it was too stormy to enjoy them...

just when you think you have it all together

It's almost 2 AM, and I'm trying to wind down to go to bed so I'm lucid for a meeting I have early in the morning. I was hoping to be in bed at a decent hour tonight, banking on Lauren Clay going down early-ish and then working on some writing and other work responsibilities that really need to get done. We've had really good at-home days lately... I'm getting into a routine of housekeeping to where we can have visitors just pop in and we're in good shape to let them wander around the house, I'm caught up on laundry, and Lauren Clay and I have had good, fun playtime together. Oh, and she's been sleeping well in her bed in her room (Dannette was right-- the bigger bed made all the difference.) Thankfully I don't have a lot of work-type responsibilities right now, because I don't get many stretches of quiet time to concentrate on things, and being methodical about writing and research, it always seems to take me a long time to get things where I want them. Seems like Lauren Clay's just waking up from her nap as I'm getting into a writing groove. I'm thankful that I'm off for the fall semester so I can be a stay-at-home mom who does a little work in her free time instead of a work-at-home mom whose day is structured around meeting deadlines in the midst of keeping up with an active toddler.

Anyway, after a nice quiet morning today, we had a terrible-2 evening. Lauren Clay was acting sleepy, so we started toward bed at around 8. It was 11:00 before she finally went down (and she didn't go down without a struggle.) It's almost like she knew we were going to have to get up extra early in the morning and that I had things to pull together before going to bed. Typically if she has a meltdown at any point in the evening, we can rest assured that she'll be asleep within minutes... but this was one of those nights where the meltdown only served to get her so worked up she couldn't calm down to go to sleep. For three hours.

She's asleep now, and the house is finally quiet. I was able to tie up the loose ends on most of my to do list, but I'm choosing not to get into the book chapter I'm writing because I'm afraid I'd work on it through the night. Now that everyone is asleep, I'm looking back and thinking it wasn't that big a deal that we had a crazy night. In fact, it definitely keeps things interesting as Lauren Clay struggles to grow up and we attempt to provide her with a healthy balance of support and independence to help her mature.

And this really puts it all into perspective. John knows a man whose 22-month old daughter passed away in her sleep over the weekend. As frustrating as a night like tonight can be, I realize it's really not so bad. I am listening to the quiet rhythm of Lauren Clay's breathing and trust that we have tomorrow to try, try again.

I'm off to bed, but not before giving our precious daughter a kiss...

Wednesday

We've had something of a reprieve from the heat wave of the past couple weeks, so Lauren Clay and I spent the morning on a walk and visit to the park. She actually slept in until almost 9, so I had an unexpectedly quiet morning to straighten the house, make the bed, mop the floors, do some laundry and check e-mails. It's amazing how much you can accomplish when a little one isn't following you around to unfold laundry, lie on the bed while you attempt to make it, dump out toys you've just put away and splash in the water while you attempt to wash dishes. Here's a picture I snapped yesterday about 10 minutes after I'd straightened up the den:

The most exciting event of the day was when we got a visit from the dog groomer. I met the owner of this company the same day I mentioned to John that I was going to take Henry somewhere to get a bath. I am getting too pregnant and too allergy-prone to do it myself. Around 1:15 today, Janice called and said she was on her way, so Henry spent a few minutes getting a bath, a nail clipping, an ear-washing, etc. in the van pictured below. Lauren Clay was not excited about someone coming to get him and take him into a van, so she spent the 20 minutes in tears, but it was totally worth it. Henry looks squeaky clean!

This picture is not good, but it does sort of capture the wild-eyed look Henry gets after a bath. It was hard to get him to sit still long enough to take a picture. He ran around the house for about 30 minutes after he was dropped off (can you tell that the rug has been pushed into the table? He did that on one of his sprints through the living room.) He's wearing the bandana the groomer tied around his neck.

updates

We've had so many precious things happen around here lately... only a few of which I've captured on film. Here's a sample of the blessings we receive daily:

In honor of John Mac's birthday, we had the Livesays and McIntyre's over for dinner Saturday night. Lauren Clay and Libby (and Henry) played really well together, so we were able to actually carry on a conversation among the adults. We need to enjoy this, because the dynamics will be changing in a few months between the (hopefully soon) arrival of Lei Lei and the arrival of our little cherub. Oh, and John and I have just about decided on names, but we're leaning toward John Bovi (for those of you who don't watch SNL, this is a joke!)




This is the biggest deal around here lately: Lauren Clay's new bed. We are trying to get sleeping arrangements in order with enough time to make them feel normal by the time baby arrives. Lauren Clay has really taken well to this bed... and so has Henry!

This picture is hard to decipher, but Lauren Clay is eating her cereal out of a little pot we picked up at IKEA. Her table is now in the kitchen (after spilling a cup of lemonade and cup of milk in the dining room, we decided the table needed to be placed on floors that are easily wiped clean!

Lauren Clay is watching Snow White right now. Snow White is sleeping, and Lauren Clay keeps saying, "so sweet." That's a phrase she uses a lot right now. Earlier today, she got super frustrated at Henry because he was wanting to play while she just wanted to give him a hug. She kept frantically screaming, "I want so sweet, Henry... I want so sweet."

She talks to Henry a lot. She'll have ask him to sit (and he does!). She'll say, "good dog" a lot, and, "no sir, Henry. No sir!" She goes to the front door and toggles the mail slot because she knows that gets Henry crazy. Also, when we come in from outside and Henry is still out, I typically close the door and count how long it takes him to follow us in. We rarely make it to 10. Lauren Clay does the same thing now... but it's usually, "one, two, three, seven, eight, nine, ten..."

I've enjoyed watching what she focuses on when we read books now. First of all, when she wants me to read, she opens a book and says, "mommy, talk." This morning we were reading a Rhyme Bible and in the story about Jonah, there's a part where Jonah is "so, so sad." As we continued reading, she kept saying, "mommy, I want so so sad"... so we would return to p. 112 over and over again.

In the car we have been listening to the Beauty and the Beast CD. She usually asks for "Belle, Be Our Guest", but enjoys the whole CD. She knows who's singing and tells me, "Maurice!" or "Gaston!" "LaFou!", "Lumiere!" My two favorite parts are when she holds her ears in anticipation of Gaston shooting his gun, and when she says, "Oh, no! Wolves!" when Maurice is lost in the forest. Just as she says that, the wolves howl.

One more story, then I'm finished with my chronicle for the day. I find it interesting to see her respond to the books I read. I think it was Francine Rivers' Atonement Child that she would grab from me and say, "no, mommy" and close it. I'm currently reading a Mitch Albom book, which she apparently likes. She'll pull this one away and attempt to read it herself (aloud.) There are a few pictures in the back of Albom and his mom, and she talks about them a lot: "no, that's Tinkerbell" (meaning, that's not Tinkerbell.) Why she associates Tink with Albom's mother is beyond me, but precious nonetheless.

Lauren Clay just came in and handed me poopy diaper she removed, so I'm off to stick her in the bath!

new roof

We love the new roof! Between the new windows, new roof and the soon-to-be-applied fresh coat of paint on the shutters and doors, our house is looking spiffy!

Why we had to postpone Spanish

This picture is for the girls who were planning to come over this morning. This shot actually looks calm; in reality, shingles and nails were flying in every direction. It's a disaster area all around our house! I'm told everything will be wrapped up today and that entrances and exits will be safe by Spanish time tomorrow.

Breakfast with poppy

We met mom and poppy Joe at Bob Evans Tuesday morning. Here are some pictures of the outing.

mom and poppy joe head to DC

We thought about joining mom and poppy for their DC trip, but it's probably best that we didn't. They spent lots of time painting and decorating Jon's house, which would have been much less efficient with Lauren Clay there to "help." We hope to join them on their next trip, pending baby's status at that point.

swim lessons

Swim lessons actually ended at the end of July, but I'm just now getting these pictures downloaded.




Lauren Clay continues to do the back float in the bathtub. Where she has been under the weather this past week, we have not made it to the pool for her to practice her moves. (We didn't want to be the cause of a pool evacuation.) Now that she is feeling better, we'll head back out to beat the heat in the cool water!

Beauty and the Beast

Lauren Clay is at the children's theater for the third time since Wednesday to watch Beauty and the Beast. Today she is accompanying her Ga Ga, Poppy Joe and Nonnonner. Hopefully mom will get some good pictures of them to post on the blog. Mom got some fun ones last night, although Lauren Clay was pretty much asleep by the time she "met" Gaston and Belle. The Bradleys gave Lauren Clay a princess purse, which she carried with pride (along with her mini Beauty and the Beast book and a pair of sunglasses inside it.)

This was taken before the show. Connor and Reagan (and Vic and Larry) joined us for dinner and the performance.


This is after the show. She didn't stay awake to meet Belle...

Cousin Miles was featured in the paper yesterday. In fact, his picture was peppered throughout the Herald Leader. Here's the story that appeared in the weekender:
http://www.kentucky.com/126/story/140528.html


I'm off to pick up sandwiches for the John and the guys who've graciously donated some time today to help him with window installation. HUGE help. Thanks, Kristina and Judy, for giving up your husbands for a few hours today!