elena and maeve

new blog

2008-12-06T11:28:00.001-08:00

I realized while making birth announcements that having people read about Maeve at elenagray wasn't going to fly! Check out our new blog at www.elenaandmaeve.blogspot.com! That's where we'll be posting about our girls from now on!

A few more details...

2008-12-03T08:06:00.000-08:00

These were taken on Sunday and Monday, before we knew we were having a baby Tuesday!

Elena and Daddy trying out Daddy's new ergo carrier
Helping daddy with the laundry

Being silly with mama

Now on to Maeve...

While in Toys R Us Monday (looking for a black baby doll with a soft body and teeth), I felt a small gush of fluid. Then twice more that afternoon. I went to the doctor, and found out my water had broken. They give you (supposedly) 24 hours, which would be 12:30 Tuesday afternoon. He thought my contractions would start in the night Monday night. They didn't, so we went in to induce on Tuesday. I really wanted to go all natural, and did until 6:00 that night when I went to the OR for my c-section. One extreme or the other, I guess. I just couldn't get her out, and her heartrate kept dropping. God knew better than I, because the one big risk with VBAC is uterine rupturing, and it ended up I did have several tears that they found during the c-section that caused quite a bit of blood loss. I was conscious for this one, which is an improvement on Elena's birth. Anyway, they also managed to get approved to tie my tubes, so that is the end of Sprinkle-Tappan biological babies!

This one is lovely, though, and tiny. She looks so much like Elena did at this age. Same nose, same mouth, same face shape. Dark eyes and hair, though not shaped exactly the same. She weighed 5 and a half pounds, was 18 inches long, and did really well for such a small baby (9-9 on her apgar). Better than we could hope. The pediatrician this morning had already made rounds at several hospitals, and said she was the healthiest baby she'd seen all day, even at her small size. She is showing her independence already and only wants to nurse on one side and likes to be held all the time! Elena is doing better than we could ever hope so far. She adores the baby, calls her "sister" and "maize" and asks her "how are you?", which is too cute. She kisses her and has been very gentle with almost no prompting so far. She likes to show people her baby and make them hold her, and she asks often to hold her too. So, good so far. We'll see how she does tomorrow at home! She also went to Build a Bear and made her a bear that she named "sit". Maeve has been around less than 24 hours, but so far is very mellow and sleeps quite a lot. We've had lots of fun with our girls so far, and it has been wonderful to be so close to the house. Our parents and siblings all came to see her last night, and have been exceptionally helpful with Elena and not leaving me alone at the hospital while Chris is with Elena, which is particularly great since we weren't quite expecting her yet and hadn't gotten everything in order. (though, I'm a planner so we did have some random things in order, but not things like the bassinet)

Anyway, we are looking forward to going home tomorrow. My recovery from this c-section is going so much better than the last, so it's nice to think about going home early. I miss my big girl! And, regular internet connection. This one is terrible and goes in and out, which is why it's taken so long to get a post up. We started working on this one last night, and have worked on it probably 10 times today. It's mostly pictures of different famiy members with the baby. We'll try to get more close ups and more of Elena and Maeve in the next few days.

Here is my birthing tub. We thought it was hilarious. I spent lots of the day in it yesterday, and Chris was in it too for a little while. And, we get to take it home!

Right after being born!

Meeting her big sister

Pictures with everyone!

Aunt Avery

Elena and daddy

Nana

Mimi

Lots of girls!

A sort of close up

with mama

With Uncle Nathan-Avery took a full length since Maeve looked so tiny here

With Grandpa

With Uncle Cliff and Aunt Pam-they'll need the practice for next Spring!

With poppy

That's all for now-we'll get more posted soon and include some close ups! Thanks for your prayers for our sweet girl!

she's here

2008-12-02T19:12:00.001-08:00

At 6:48pm today, Celia Maeve made her external world debut at 5lbs 8 oz and 18 inches. Mom and newbie are doing well, and big sis Elena seems to like her. More info, pics, etc, tomorrow. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.

maeve

2008-12-01T16:44:00.001-08:00

It looks like Maeve will be making her debut early. As in, tomorrow. Or tonight. My water broke today. Pray that my contractions will start on their own and I won't have to have anything to augment it, or a c-section. And for us mentally as we weren't expecting her quite yet. And for her, that she's healthy since she's four days shy of 37 weeks. And for Elena to adjust. Thanks. We'll update when there's something to let you know!

Thanksgiving pics

2008-11-29T16:15:00.000-08:00

We just got back tonight from Thanksgiving/Christmas in Mt. Washington, and I thought I'd go ahead and load this week's pictures.

These are from Wednesday morning-she figured out that raspberries would go on her fingers like hats on her own. She was pretty proud of herself. After baby class Elena and I went to Fantasy of Trees. She liked looking at things, but was a little unsure. She did, however, LOVE listening to the kids sing and tried to do all their movements along with them.

Out of order-reading with Aunt Pam

Very happily eating a candy cane, which she's requested numerous times since.

Listening to kids sing. Other people took her picture too-she was so into it.

Riding the carousel before it started-after it started moving, she just wanted to pet the horse, but not sit on it.

Riding in the kids section

Opening her stocking with Nana

Aunt Pam and Uncle Cliff got her a box of kid sized sports balls. That's probably good practice, since we don't currently own any of them even in adult sizes.

Grandma trying on some of Elena's new dress up clothes

She's still into being the "baby" and being wrapped up.

We went to a children's museum. One child, 6 adults. She had a good time, though, and liked playing pretend, climbing steps, and painting.

Reading a book this morning with Grandma and Nana

Grandma gave her this rolling pin that her great grandfather had made (grandma is her great grandmother). Leni mostly enjoyed tasting it.

Teaching Uncle Cliff how to jump off the stool.

Painting at the children's museum

At the top of the fort with Uncle Cliff at the children's museum

That's all for now-I'm sure I"ll have more from other people soon! I didn't take pictures the whole time, but between us, there were lots more taken. We had a great time and it was nice to have time to visit. Next time we see them, we'll be a little busier with two!

22 months and a very busy week.

2008-11-24T18:00:00.000-08:00

Well, I went through and organized all of these, and blogger still didn't upload them in order! I just must be missing something.

This week was a busy one! Last weekend we had some time just to ourselves with nothing planned, which was nice. Elena played "horsey" with Daddy, then wanted to be the horsey for her baby. Cute. Baby dolls do almost everything she does now-one of my favorites has to be that she shows them things and has them touch them-like reading books. She also does a really adorable thing where she tells them goodbye and then comes back and says "missed you!". We videoed it the other night, and she did it 12 times in a row.

She is a very serious draw-er for a 22 month old. She uses a pen and writes "letters" and will tell you what they are. She will do this for numerous minutes at a time. Here, she's very seriously writing on Gigi and Grandad's birthday cards.

She brought me the camera, got Harriet, and said "picture". She wouldn't smile, but she did sort of pose. She's standing very close so she can get to the camera to look at it quickly.

Last Friday we had nothing planned to do and it was raining, so we rented videos and let her choose for the first time. She chose Babe. This was her "seat" for part of the movie. The rest of it she was between us eating popcorn!

Out of order-these are from the Thanksgiving dinner at my parents' house. My grandparents, aunt DeAnn and her husband David, uncle Steve, and our usual crew were all in town this year, which was fun. Leni had a good time having undivided attention for several days. She loves to dress up-these were some galoshes Mimi had in the dress up tent. (And, her Thanksgiving dress)

We had a birthday party for Gigi and Grandad's birthdays at Avery and Nathan's house. We didn't tell Elena that Cami was going to be there, just in case it didn't work out, but she was SO glad to see her!

Doing "head, shoulders, knees and toes".

Our small group had a shower for us last night, which was really nice! It was fun to celebrate Maeve coming. We had chili and Magpies cupcakes-yum! Elena helped open presents, and drug people to try to tell the kitties under the bed to "num-oh", which is "come on". It didn't work.

From Thanksgiving-with uncle Steve.

Playing downstairs with uncle David. All the big boys around the house were favorites this week.

Playing downstairs with Gigi and Deedee

Being sweet with her baby

Tonight everyone came over for dinner on their way back from our cousin Chelsea's wedding. (We didn't make it, seeing how a 22 month old and wedding don't go well together, plus the whole 8 month pregnant part). Here she's being sweet with Grandad.

David was playing guitar and she was dancing with her baby and polar bear.

Gigi was telling her she was a baby, and she loved it. She asked to be the baby twice, and has since asked me and Chris to hold her like a baby, cover her with a blanket, and has gotten out a few of Maeve's toys for herself to play with.

Magpies cupcakes and the really pretty table from the shower.

She REALLY wanted Kaori to sit in her lap. Kaori, who is almost as big as she is. Kaori was a good sport, and she's been looking at the pictures and saying her name tonight. She can't say her own name, but she says "Kaori" and "Emmy" for Emily. The L's are tricky for her.

Just one other quick story-

I took her to the nursery Sunday during church, and was getting juice for a couple of the kids who were out before I left. I saw her kneel down and tell a little girl who's new and kind of shy "hey", then ask if she wanted to "num-on" and slide, and told her the names of some of the other kids. It didn't work-the little girl didn't come play, but I was really touched by how she realized the little girl wasn't playing and tried to include her. This is definitely her daddy in her, but it's really sweet to see her little spirit coming out when it's unprompted. She is our sweetest girl!

35

2008-11-20T07:35:00.001-08:00

35 weeks down, 35 days to go. It's a little scary how close that is.

This week, professional, and old pictures

2008-11-14T10:57:00.000-08:00

There are quite a few things in this post, and blogger didn't load them in order.

Today we went and had 21 month/Christmas pictures taken. Luckily I put a matching sweater on her, because she didn't want to take it off! She also didn't want to give up her baby doll. But, they turned out sweet. I'm not posting her "official" pictures we had printed yet so that they're a surprise when relatives get them this week, but I'll make sure to post them later!

In her Christmas dress...

I went to Little Gym with Leni and Chris Tuesday night and took pictures, since I can't really do the activities very well at this point. I thought I was pretty good about getting her to try things, but she's very timid when I take her and doesn't want to do the special skills. Not so with her daddy! She was first in line to try everything! It's fun to see how different she is with each of us-I'm glad she's not afraid to take risks while he's with her!

One of the people who works with Chris had her little girl there for the first time that night also. She's the one to his right. Oddly, a girl I was in youthgroup with was there last week, and her husband and daughter were there this week.

Last time they blew up this big mat, Elena sat on the edge but didn't want to do much. This time (I guess after the Farragut moonwalk thing at Halloween) she jumped all over it!

Some older pictures that my aunt sent me. This one is just from our October trip to Atlanta

I love this pictures. I don't post naked pictures of her on here, but this one was too cute! (and, you can't see anything)

From a previous trip-she looks teeny!

Out of order-walking on the balance beam with daddy (which she won't do with me!)

That's all for now! This week we're having lots of my family in town, then going to Thanksgiving at Chris's parents, so I'm sure we'll have lots to post soon! Hopefully, we aren't going to be posting that we've had another small child until the end of December!

just info I'm glad about

2008-11-11T15:53:00.000-08:00

Just for anyone who's recently heard me complain about my OB, I got a new one! Very pro VBAC, going without pain meds, and birthing tubs (though I don't plan to actually give birth in one-just use it for labor) and was recommended by midwives at Lisa Ross and took me even though I'm almost 34 weeks! We are all very glad. Also, the only hospital he delivers in is St. Mary's, which is about 3 blocks from our house. After all that has happened with my OB, I am so glad to have a new one! (I do know other people who used my old OB and had good experiences, just not me) His name is Dr. Brabson-I went to see him on Monday and LOVED him-much more laid back (and significantly quicker) than Generations. Lots of sighs of relief over here...

random pics and a few from this week

2008-11-10T05:11:00.000-08:00

Since I was not leaving the house much last week, I thought I'd throw in a few pictures that Avery sent me off her camera.

This is from Cami's birthday party in September. Elena LOVES cheese puffs, she just never gets them. She liked trying on Cami's sash, and Cami was gracious to let her. On a Cades Cove bike ride with Daddy-I don't know what they're doing here!

This is from yesterday-Daddy was throwing leaves and Elena was stomping in them.

We went to First Friday, even though it was raining. It was the Grand Opening for Magpies, the French Market, and Rita's water ice. Who could miss all that! Besides, we'd been stuck inside for days. Here we are at Magpies. It was really crowded, so we didn't get pictures of the food.

Playing with Titus at Avery and Nathan's on Ave's birthday-it's nice to have poor, defenseless cats with no claws to practice on!

At Avery's Chop House birthday dinner-tearing up paper

Playing with Sayley in the RV-I can't remember when this is either.

She has been so fun this week. She's really talking and says new things every day. This morning, for instance, she's said cereal, orange juice, blanket, couch, and sit down. All new for today. She's been teaching us how she perceives what we say to her, too, by the way she talks to her baby. Yesterday she sat her baby on the table, said "please" in a pleading voice, laid her down, said "thank you" in a relieved voice, and changed her diaper. She hates to have hers changed, and that's pretty much how it goes with us! She's really sharing well and enjoying being around people. We always have fun with her, but lately she's been so great to be around.

off bedrest!

2008-11-06T14:12:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to let everyone know that I'm off modified bed rest! I had a test yesterday to find out if I would go into labor in the next 14 days, and today it came back negative. I only have a 1 in 125 chance of it now, so no more bedrest! I go in tomorrow since I already had an appointment scheduled and am still having a ridiculous amount of Braxton Hicks that are very uncomfortable at night, and I'd like to see a doctor instead of the same nurse practitioner who is nice but not that helpful. Just wanted to fill you in! No pictures to post since it hasn't been that interesting around here lately-though I think Nathan took some yesterday so I'll see if he has anything good. It was my sister's birthday! Happy Birthday a day late Ave!

Halloween, and some other things

2008-11-01T05:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday ended up not going quite as planned. Elena and I went to Smart Toys and books for an art class, then ran a couple of errands. She came home and napped, and Chris came home to watch her for my doctor's appointment. At the appointment, they asked if I had any questions, and I mentioned that I'd had lots of Braxton-Hicks contractions and just didn't know how many was normal. WAY less than I've been having apparently, because now I'm on modified bedrest. Meaning, I can sit on the couch and hang with Elena, but not much else for the next two weeks, at least, and longer if I don't want her to come in two weeks. I'm 32 weeks now, and she said it'd be much better for Maeve if I can make it to 34. Or, in the very blunt way she said it, it's no fun to have a 21 month old at home and a newborn at Children's. Yikes. I was hoping she'd be LATE, certainly not 6-8 weeks early. I've been overdoing it, trying to do fun things with Leni and get things ready, so we're going to just try sitting and doing nothing for the weekend while Chris is home and see if it helps. They're worse in the afternoon and evening, but I haven't had any this morning sitting on the couch for the last half hour. So, keep us in mind. It's pretty frustrating to not get up.

So, modified bedrest includes not trick or treating. We were going to go to market square, but instead went to four houses in my parents neighborhood of people we knew, then sat and passed out candy. I wanted her to see kids dressed up, hence the market square, but she was happy at Mimi and Poppy's house and mama could sit.

She did get in to trick or treating this year. Here, she found a kit kat and ate half of it herself. Shifty eyes at questions about trick or treating

Her first real trick or treating at the Mothersheds' house-she knocked, said trick or treat, and walked right in! We had to work on that before other houses...

Jumping at Smart Toys and Books

On the hayride last week-Sonya got a picture of all of us looking at the camera!

Mama and Leni go to Atlanta

2008-10-29T19:08:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been nesting, getting ready for Maeve, and feeling sad that it won't be just me and Leni at home anymore. So, as kind of a mama-and-Leni-intensive-time, we went to Atlanta for three nights! We kept very busy and had a great time, and it's nice that it's also nice to be home! Chris kept very busy while we were gone doing projects that couldn't be done while we were home, and the house looks great!

Leni wanting to look at the camera picture side, and waiting patiently.
These aren't in order. We got there Sunday night and just bought groceries. Monday we went to the Children's museum, which was great, and Ikea, then to the Perimeter mall and our favorite bakery after nap. Tuesday, our morning got kind of shot when I lost my wallet, and Tuesday night we went to a park with my aunt, dinner, the Virginia Highlands area, and to her house to visit with David and see the kitties. Wednesday morning we met up with Deedee again and went to the Botanical Gardens, then drove home and went to Mom and Dad's church for the Fall Festival! Whew-we had lots of fun, but are pretty tired and looking forward to a day at home today!

Holding Gracie, one Deedee's kitties. As soon as she saw Deedee, she said "meow, meow" and starting looking for kitties in the stores.

At lunch at the flying biscuit after losing my wallet-her favorite thing was to put the sugar packets into and out of the container.

Having her baby pet a plastic dog at Macy's at the mall. Having her baby do everything was another favorite activity.

She's very methodical-at the Children's museum, putting down all the cups, then plates. All of them.

Hugging the chicken puppets

At the fall festival last night-she LOVED this bouncy house and stayed in it for a long time. Isn't she a cute Raggedy Ann?

Shifty eyes-she does this a lot where she'll look back and forth.

At the botanical gardens with Deedee

There were a lot of kids on field trips at the gardens, and a big group of 8ish year olds were racing in the yard. Elena joined in.

This might be my favorite picture of the weekend-I don't know what this face is, but it's sweet!

Checking out her loot-she figured out that it was a good deal!

Trunk or treating with daddy

With Aunt Avery

Cami's new teeth-she was dressed as Sleeping Beauty

Eating Cotton candy-I guess she remembered it from the Corn Maze last week, because she was a fan as soon as she saw it!

I'll be sure to post some from Halloween night and our church hayride this weekend!

pumpkin patch plus a few extra

2008-10-26T05:32:00.000-07:00

Last night we went with our small group to the corn maze and pumpkin patch hayride, and we had a great time. Elena really liked these "peek throughs"-she was really smiley and had lots of fun!

Posing with Kaori Smiley girl

At the pumpkin patch with daddy

Family shot on the hayride.

Sitting on a hay bale-she got frustrated when anyone else tried to sit too!

She has started shrugging, which is cute

Posing with daddy

Playing with uncle Nathan at Mimi and Poppy's on Friday

Playing with Sayley, and giggling lots

Coloring at Smart Toys and Books art class Friday

Last week, the group I hung out with from the CSC came over for dinner and Elena liked watching baby Will play

At the corn maze last night (I don't know why these didn't load in order)-Kaori's first taste of cotton candy

A fairly regular week

2008-10-18T07:39:00.000-07:00

Since we didn't have anything major going on this week, I thought I'd really try to get pictures of what we regularly do. I didn't get them all, but I got some.

Sunday we go to church, sleep and clean house all afternoon, then have small group with a group that started at Farragut and now I think only one person goes there. But, we've been meeting with this group plus or minus since Spring 2006.

Elena and the Harris's baby, Kaori. Kaori is so funny and loved watching Elena. Elena had been super excited about Kaori coming, and then was unsure when they were both there.

She did, however, love to put her babies in Kaori's carseat.
Kaori trying on Leni's bonnet
Monday we went to Little Gym. For the first time ever, Elena was the first one to want to try a new skill. Actually, she was on this half moon before Miss Christy finished talking. Here, she and Wren were playing seesaw, and both slid into the middle.
Smiling...sort of.

Bubble time is her favorite. Bubbles and hand stamps.

Afterwards, we went to the Rush playground at the mall because I was trying to figure out if I had to go to the doctor. (I didn't, and the glucose test came back normal. Below normal, actually) She loves to slide.
I didn't get any from Tuesday, which was when my dad came over to visit and then Chris took her for the evening so that I can get something done before Maeve arrives. I'm getting a little panicky...

Wednesday we went to baby class at the library. She's all decked out in her Halloween gear.
Showing me her handstamp. We hadn't been in a couple of weeks so I had a few of the top of her head, but mostly she was just leaning against me.
Reading with Sam after class. She was really excited that he was showing her things in books.
After class we met Aunt Avery for lunch, and did manage to get wet in the fountain.

I also went to try to buy good winter shoes, but that's going to have to wait until December or January. That's right, I can't buckle my shoes. Sigh.

Wednesday night we had small group #2 at our house, and the Smiths brought over a tiny baby bunny they're raising! Elena LOVED it and has talked about it every day since. And we still don't want to keep it, Kenny! We really appreciate them bringing it-she has been so funny about it. She's feeding it a bottle, sort of, here.

Thursday I had a doctor's appointment, which only lasted an hour! A record for this practice, actually. And, mom came over to hang with Leni, which I need to start taking pictures of.

Friday we went to an art class at Smart Toys and Books, which was fine but a little unimpressive. The rest of them are holiday craft ones, so hopefully they'll be better. They did let them eat popcorn, though, so Elena thought it was great.
We played in Smart toys and books for awhile. She has THREE puppies in purses on her arm. She kissed all of them before we left to go to work for awhile.
And, that's our week! She's currently riding in Cades Cove with Chris, Ave, Nathan, and my dad, and then we're going to a wedding and having people for dinner tonight. It's a busy week this week, so I'll post again soon!

20 months, Museum of Appalachia homecoming, and a visit from grandparents

2008-10-11T18:55:00.000-07:00

This week, both Chris and Elena have been sick, so we did fewer activites than usual and played at home a lot. They're both feeling better, so we'll be back to normal this week, hopefully!

This Monday was the first cupcake tasting at Magpies new location. We went and tried them, and had different favorites this time! She mostly enjoyed the milk "shots", because she could use her own tiny cup. That was kind of a theme this week-using her own, non sippy cup. Since we were home more, we did more crafts. I'll have to post pictures soon. They turned out super cute. When I pulled out the glitter, she clasped her hands and said "ohhhhh". She's going to be such a girly girl! You should see her with shoes. Where did she come from?
Reading her nightly bible story with daddy, but insisting on her baby sharing.
By Friday morning she was finally feeling pretty good, so we made it to the Museum of Applachia homecoming. We got there when it opened, and she was one of the only kids. This band talked to her from stage, which made her nervous, but she liked dancing to it.

Looking at sheep. She kept yelling "baa" at them, and actually reached out right after this picture and said "eye" and touched it before I could get to her. That was the end of the sheep. She's big on pointing out eyes right now, which is funny because she's been able to identify them for months and months.
She found ice and shrieked when she saw it. She loves it, and loves to say "brrr". I don't know the fascination, but it's there! Running up and down a ramp
Very interested in the noisy turkeys

This was her activity for about 20 minutes-picking up rocks in one place and moving them to another. Since the average age of people visiting the museum was probably 70, they enjoyed watching her.
Another favorite activity-climbing stairs over and over. We had to end this one when hundreds of middle schoolers on a scavenger hunt kept running her over.
She liked trying on these bonnets, and looked too sweet in them
We bought this one
Drinking muscadine juice out of her own tiny cup with her own bonnet. When the juice ran out, I filled it up with apple juice because she was having too much fun with that cup

John and Susan came to visit Friday night and Saturday. It had been awhile since she'd seen them, and they had fun catching up. She's a lot bigger than she was in July!
Grandpa made her the most beautiful table and chairs-he really worked hard on them. She sat in them all evening and today, and will really enjoy them.
The table was really tall, and John had brought a saw so that he could see her in it and cut the legs to size. She's helping.
Today we went to the zoo and saw all the animals she and I had missed the last time. She likes to make the noises, and there were more animals out this time.

Looking at the meerkats with Nana. They were super cute and would come right up to the glass. Since we said they were meerkats, she kept meowing at them. We don't know what sound meerkats really make, so we're sticking with it for now.

Walking with Nana and Daddy
"smiling" where she just puts up her fingers and doesn't really smile...
I'm sure we'll have more pictures from the weekend when I get some from Susan, so I'll post those then. This week is just sort of normal without major giant events, so maybe I'll try to take some of what we do regularly. Assuming no one is sick. I have another doctor's appointment this week, so I'll find out for sure about the glucose test and post when I do. Thanks for your prayers that direction.

I thought I'd add some fun stuff she's doing now too. She's counting two, three, four, five and seven, eight, nine. No one, six, or ten. Also, we sing our ABC's while we brush our teeth, and she knows maybe a quarter of her letters, but her favorites are W,X,Y,Z. She loves to sing, and can say lots of the words to The Wheels On the Bus, Jesus Loves the Little Ones Like Me, This Little Light of Mine, and Old MacDonald. She loves to jump and to tell people where to sit. One of the cutest things she's doing now is "taking roll". Sometimes it's obvious what she's doing, and she'll decide on who has a baby in their tummy, or who's at our house. She'll say something like "Mimi-no. Poppy-no. Mama-yeah. Avery-no. Daddy-yeah!". Cute. She will also walk around with her baby doll and tell it yes and no to different things. We're not always sure what that is. She also likes to "trick" us and say yes to something that is no in a funny voice. She's into pretending and likes to be a kitty or puppy or other random animal. She doesn't talk much, but can generally tell you a noise an animal makes and at least show you some feature of it for about 30 animals. She's very into shoes and dress up stuff and putting on and taking off clothes. Luckily she hasn't tried it with her diaper yet! She concentrates hard also. I don't know the right word for this, but she'll move rocks from one place to another, or organize bouncy balls by color, or line up crayons for half an hour or more sometimes. She's just very focused for a 20 month old. We love our girl! It's so fun to see her learn new things.

Jonesborough storytelling trip

2008-10-06T09:52:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we went to Jonesborough, TN for the National Storytelling Convention. We've wanted to go forever, and went this year with my parents and my aunt DeAnn, her husband David, and David's son Nathan. David's family has gone since, I think, the beginning of the festival so he knew who to tell us to see. They had all of his family there to visit too. It was appropriate content wise for kiddos, but listening for an hour isn't all that much fun for a 20 month old, so we took turns taking Elena out. Mostly, she climbed up and down stairs over and over. She loves to get to the bottom and say "two, three, jump!". Jonesborough is a pretty neat town anyway, and it was fun to walk around.

Posing in front of the visitor's center Playing "lift him up" with daddy
Zonked out after the end of the Friday night storytelling
We slept in a tent next to the RV for...fun. Except that it was freezing. But, we had a good time playing in the tent after we'd gotten up, pretending that we were asleep.
Smelling the flowers in front of the courthouse

Waving and saying "neigh" to the horses with Mimi
She saw another little girl with a sucker, so Poppy bought her one too. It was a sticky mess, but she enjoyed it!
Tasting homemade blackberry ice cream with daddy. We had to trade because she'd open her mouth every time you picked up the spoon.
Playing piggy toes with Mimi

Being held by Deedee

Yesterday afternoon on the porch. The kitty is Josie, who lives two doors down. She doesn't particularly like Elena, but knows she's not going to get pet unless she cooperates, so she does it. Elena was very excited.
These are copied from other people's pictures from the hayride the other day, which I guess is why they're smaller.

We had a really fun weekend, and a nice time visiting with family. Today she's been saying "Mimi...no", "Poppy...no", "mama...yeah"-like she's deciding if they're here or not. She does this a lot, even with her toys, and we don't always know what she's debating. Today is monthly cupcake tasting day, this week is Museum of Appalachia homecoming, and this weekend is a visit from Chris's parents, so we'll have lots to post next week!

Also, keep me in mind on Thursday. I had a glucose test last week and they just called to say my numbers came back high, which means I have to have another test that lasts 3 hours for gestational diabetes. That would put a serious crimp in my plans to not have a caesarean, and involve a lot of doctor's visits, not to mention being dangerous for Maeve. Please pray that my numbers go down this week. Thanks.

Important info

2008-10-05T12:59:00.000-07:00

I have lots to post, but just wanted to say really quickly that tomorrow is Magpies cupcake tasting day. Three new flavors, 11-6, at their new location. Just wanted to make sure that anyone in town knew.

lots of activity and, oddly, a lot of goats

2008-10-02T11:31:00.000-07:00

The past week or so has been insanely busy, and doesn't show much sign of slowing this coming week. Last Wednesday we skipped baby class and went to a special day at the zoo. It was Elena's first time, and seeing the animals was a hit.

Semi-posing-we got there when it opened so that we could get our tickets worth before naptime, but we got there before the animals were out. Petting goats-she never will touch an animal, but this time they gave her a brush, which was a good thing to start with. She ended up petting lots of them and loving it.
Sitting in an "eggshell"
It was knoxmoms day at the zoo, so they had quite a few activites for little ones.

I don't know if you can tell, but the big black thing is a bear! They have this big tunnel and a plate glass window, and you can walk up to the window to look for the bears. This one was asleep against the window-we didn't even see it at first. Maybe a half inch from her.

At the prairie dog tunnels. Which, as a side note, was my elementary school mascot.
Elena running away from the camels. They were a little too close, and wanted to eat out of your hands.
Blowing kisses to the zebras. After the camels, she told every animal "no, no" so that they wouldn't come near her. She didn't get that they wouldn't anyway.
Getting very tired. We went intending to go to a llama birthday party and to meet George, the new baby monkey. But, we had utter and complete meltdown before we could get there. This was our last activity, really.

Thursday we went to the water park near our house, intending on playing with friends from church. But, Elena is a lot littler and I still have to watch her on stairs and slides, and Josephine is almost a year older and didn't need as much assistance, so we ended up kind of doing our own thing. This is the only picture I took, since I was busy with her!
I realize now that we didn't take any pictures Friday-today. Not a single one. We were plenty busy, though.

Today we went with the "under-preschoolers" from church to the fruit and berry patch. It was really fun. We went on a hayride, fed goats and sheep, got a pumpkin, went through a corn maze, bought apples, had apple cider, and went out to lunch. Needless to say, she's asleep and mama is headed that way soon. Right after finishing this blog.

Emily and Leni in front of the barn smelling flowers. They're two days apart. Oddly, of the five kids, these two are two days apart, two of the others are one day apart, and then Naomi is on her own.

Getting ready for the hayride-Lilly smiling at me
Being very excited that the goat tried to eat out of her hand.
Emily and Rachelle-who's due with her second in a couple of weeks. She was a good sport to come, in my opinion! She's having another girl like we are, and our second ones will just be a couple of months apart. It's nice to have someone to share pregnancy woes and 20 month old stories with!

Elizabeth and Josephine picking out pumpkins-baby Ada stayed home today
Emily's pumpkin choice. Elena was not getting the idea that we had to actually choose one of them to take home
Finally sort of choosing one-mama had to say "this one, or this one" to get one to take with us
Rachel and Naomi on the hayride. We were all trying to take pictures of each other, since we all five had our cameras but it's hard to get one of you with your own kiddo

Elena in the corn maze

Trying to get a shot of all five-this is the closest we got
Elena and Josephine holding hands. They look sweet in their red
Drinking their apple cider at the barn afterwards

It was a really nice day to be outside and get to hang out with other mamas. We have lots going on again starting tomorrow, so I'll try to update early next week!

Birthday party extravaganza

2008-09-23T12:35:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was a big one around our house. Cami (our goddaughter) and Fredda (my "little sister" through a big brother, big sister type program) have birthdays 3 days apart, and we hosted parties for both this past weekend. It was lots of fun, but we are still recouperating!

Cami's was actually second, but all of the pics are out of order this week. Avery and Nathan went to Libby Lu with Cami before the party at Little Gym, which she LOVED and looked adorable. I guess there were about 15 kids who came to the party? Plus their parents, and some siblings. A big group! The Little Gym did a great job of making it fun-we didn't even have to decorate. They put up the decorations we brought for us. And cleaned up. Nice.

Here's Cami opening presents. Last year, another little boy blew out Cami's candles, and Cami had asked my mom to make sure that she got to blow them out this year. Mom couldn't be there, but said that I would make sure. Cami blew them two or three times, then the little girl next to her blew them out and the Little Gym people immediately took the cake. Cami looked right at me, so I got her the first piece, put the candles on it, relit them, and sat in front of the little girl who'd blown them out before (to her credit, she was trying to be helpful, but after last year...) Cami blew and blew, and could not get those candles out. Maybe 20 times. They weren't trick candles... Anyway, she got her mom and the two of them tried to blow them out and finally, maybe 12 more times later, got them to go out. It ended up being hilarious, and great for Cami. This is during that, when they still couldn't get them out.

Dancing on the parachute-which, by the way, was all that Elena wanted to do on it because they ride on it in her Little Gym class, and when they finally did get to stand on it, she would have nothing to do with it.
Cami swinging
Elena doing her own thing and not joining the group...she was pretty little to do what they did, but she hasn't wanted to join the group during her class either. Little Gym allows them to explore instead of doing group activities, but mama wants her to learn that there are times to explore and times to join everyone else. We talked about it all the way to class this past Monday, and she got it. She didn't always like it at first, but she did it and loved the activities once we were into them.

Erica and her new boyfriend Mark, who we all love, love, love. Truly. He is by far our favorite ever. He's wonderful to Erica and thinks she's great, and adores Cami and does fun stuff with her and is appropriate and marvelous and wonderful. You can all pray that this works out.
Aunt Avery and Elena playing-Elena is having her first overnight visit at Uncle Nathan and Aunt Avery's house ever this weekend! Kitties galore! We figure it's good practice for when Maeve comes and they stay with Leni, plus there's a concert of two of our favorite people ever on Saturday at 9. Any Katie Herzig or Matthew Perryman Jones fans-World Grotto this weekend.

Cami's toenails that Mark painted for her. He told her to be very still because princesses are poised and proper, and when she went to Libby Lu later in the day, she was very still and quiet and Avery and Nathan didn't know why. They didn't know she was trying to be poised. Very funny.
I wish I'd gotten a back shot of Cami's hair-it was very ornate. She was so proud of it.

Now, the first birthday of the weekend. Fredda turned 14 this week (which makes 11 years I've been her big sister-I am getting so old!). This is the only real shot I got of the night-I mostly stayed in my room (with open, adjoining doors) and went in to bring cake, order pizza, etc. Her friend brought her camera, so they took tons of pictures on their own, posing and doing makeup. We went to bed around 2, and got up at 7:45. I've napped a lot this week.
Now a few from our week. Wednesday last week we went to baby class, played in the fountain, went to market, and then went to another storytime where Phil Bredesen was reading stories and presenting the 500,000 book for Imagination Library. Lots of music and books, and we met some friends for a picnic lunch. A nice day. It was funny to have over 100 little kids, and 20ish men in suits in for the photo op. All the mayors and the governor with random kids on their laps...

On a walk this week, showing mama some rocks.

I've started doing a craft a week (and have them planned until December). I had thought about putting her in Mother's day out, but I'm not ready yet. But, I like having adorable things she's made. If anyone has small children and wants my weekly list with a materials list, email me at aksprinkle@gmail.com and I'll send it to you. Last week was a paper bag painted like an apple with a paper leaf. Here is my daughter, trying to feed it in the high chair instead...

A picture of munchkin eating a cheese puff at Cami's party. She loves these, and has maybe had them 3 times, but knows what the bag looks like.
It is a big cooking week at our house-I'm cooking for 4 fairly large groups or involved things this week. So, when it had been a few minutes and she was quiet, I went to find her. She was sitting on the couch, methodically putting stickers on it. Stickers are her new very favorite thing. I helped her finish them before I got her involved in something else and cleaned it up.

Vacation pics

2008-09-16T10:57:00.000-07:00

I put a few vacation pictures on the last post, but here's the bulk of them. We got back Sunday from a week at Tybee Island and Savannah (thanks mom and dad!). Even though we stayed on the island, we only really went to the beach twice, for less than two hours each time! I guess we'll have to admit that we're not really "beach" people. Savannah was amazing, though. Chris and I had never been, and we really enjoyed walking around. It was pretty hot and sticky, but really pretty trees and buildings.

Here's munchkin on a trolley ride. We never do those, but it was the best way to see the city in a short amount of time. Leni did not love sitting for the trip, though, so we kept trading her between our seats. She looks pretty cute here, though. Being momentarily entertained by Uncle Nathan and Aunt Avery
Walking on the river front-she was very interested in this bear, particularly in the basket of flowers.

Mom bought her an umbrella for Christmas, but she carried it around downtown too. She liked it very much.
The house where we stayed was unbelievably nice-just built last year. This was one of Leni's favorite games-climbing in and out of a stool under the bar.
Mom had this hat in the RV on the way down, and it was a favorite toy
At the beach with Poppy

At the beach with the lighthouse in the background

Playing with daddy
Mom playing Guitar Hero...fairly entertaining!
Snuggling with Uncle Nathan and Aunt Avery
Another new fun game-jumping off the ottoman. The next two pictures are the before and after shots. She's learned to count "one, two, three", but generally forgets one.

The second time at the beach there was an area like a little pond-maybe 20 feet by 6 feet and never more than 8 inches deep. I don't know what made it do that, but it was like the perfect pool for Elena-she could explore to her heart's content.

Walking around one of the squares in Savannah-I think she'd been jumping
Her Halloween costume came this week-here's a preview of next month! She's also saying "no" to me taking her picture.

That's it for vacation. She'll be 20 months old tomorrow, and it is just starting to strike me that when she's 23 months, we'll have another baby. It seems pretty insane, and pretty insanely close! Maeve is pretty active at this point, and likes to kick her big sister whenever she's against me. Mama gets wallowed on inside and out, which is a lot sometimes!

Our week

2008-09-10T09:12:00.000-07:00

This week we went to the first of the fall Books and Blooms at the UT Arboreteum because they were having zoo animals! Before we got there, I asked Elena if she wanted to see the animals and she asked "nay, nay?"-would we see horses? Amazingly, the girl with the animals did not carry a horse to the arboreteum-but she was still pretty impressed.

I also realized I haven't taken any pictures in the newest dress Susan made for her, so here's a close up. Because she had her name on her front, another lady approached me with her goddaughter, who was also named Elena with the same pronunciation! Her new baby sister is Sylvia, which is pretty close to Celia. I thought that was interesting. Looking at the owl-ever since, she'll turn her head like an owl and hoot
The hedgehog was the cutest thing. I don't know what sound a hedgehog makes, so we wrinkle our noses and sniff.
Smelling the flowers mama got at market Wednesday. They smelled amazing-I think the one that was really strong is called tuberose?

Saturday, Elena and Chris went to Huck and Lily's birthday party at the park while I went to our second-to-last market! Here they are getting ready to blow out the candles.
Leni eating cake-this is her first birthday party of a friend of hers-she went to Cami's, but that's a little different.
Eating an apple that she got for herself after market Saturday
Petting horses the other day with daddy-well, watching daddy pet horses
A man gave her a rose made out of a palm leaf. She liked it very much and kept smelling it

At the Paula Dean store
Playing in the park with Mimi
Throwing coins in the fountain
She loves to wear Poppy's extra hat in the car, and turns it so she can see.

Petting the alligator outside of the Crab Shack where we ate dinner

Crossing her arms-her newest favorite thing
Looking at the water with daddy
Posing outside of where we ate
Telling me about the tiny crabs that she and daddy saw on the dock-she makes this face and says "ohhh" when talking about anything little, tiny, or baby. It looks pained, but means something like "oh-sweet baby".

That's it so far-I'm sure I'll have more from the rest of our week and next week is both Cami and Fredda's birthday parties-so lots from that. Hope your week is going as well as ours!

A very busy week!

2008-09-01T11:15:00.000-07:00

Looking back through the pictures, this has been a very busy week! Last Sunday we went to Marble Slab with our small group, and Elena had a big time playing with Ms. Sonya. She did this on her own-drug her rocking chair to the door to look out, then got her baby and was rocking her and kissing her. She's a sweet girl.
We went to Sprout Studios for the first time last week because parents got in free after 3 and I had a coupon for her. She loved it-it's like all the centers you might have at preschool, but on a larger scale and in one big room. She kept going back to the water area.

Drinking (a tiny bit) of water at the cafe area. She did spill it, but she also helped clean it up.
Pushing her stroller after baby class on Wednesday at Starbucks. It kept her entertained.
Driving the cutest car in Bliss. It's the most non-practical toy-the pedals would be almost impossible to use, but it's cute for a picture!
We joined the Little Gym this week (thanks to my mom and dad!) and Elena LOVED it-she cried when we left. It's not the class we'll be in, we'll go on Mondays, but it had already started so they let us make up a couple.

Here, she's hanging from the bar and swinging.

At the end, they get out a trash can full of balls and they run around like crazy.

Catching bubbles, which she can say now. She can also, as of this week, say and identify "star", "purple", and says "thank you" without being asked.
Last year I gave all our moms and dads some kind of pottery piece with her handprint, then went on my birthday to do one so I'd have one too! It makes a nice tradition, so we did it again this year. She's "helping" me by painting water on a piece of paper.
Being very gutsy on the Rush play equipment in the mall outside the pottery painting place.
Waving while she rides the merry-go-round. She only likes the ones with a steering wheel!

She put her shoes on herself, and was VERY proud, though you can't tell here. What you can tell, if you look closely, is that they're on the wrong feet.

Aunt Avery came over to visit, and while I couldn't get a good shot, Elena was playing with her very diamond-y engagement ring. It was too sparkly to pass up!
So proud! She built this entirely by herself. It was much bigger, until I tried to take a picture and she dropped part of it. Her daddy was very into blocks when he was little, too.
For my (29th!) birthday we had brunch at La Costa. So amazing. We were the first ones, so it took a little while for them to get our food out, but Leni had a good time running around the outside area.
My birthday cake.

Playing chase with Uncle Nathan. We had dinner at Naples and came back to our house for cake and presents.

Last night was Boomsday, which is a great use of the RV! Dad parks it and we have a place to rest in air conditioning and go to the bathroom (which, considering my current pregnant state, is often...)

Elena was practicing driving.
Aunt Avery took my camera to play with Elena, and was taking very close shots and showing them to her, but this one came out pretty cute!
A similar shot of Cami
So happy to have people to play ring around the rosie with!

"We all fall down!"

Uncle Nathan with both girls-being kitties, I think?
Elena demonstrating what Cami is about to do....(jump!)
Cami bungee jumping at Boomsday!
She was too little to jump hard enough to flip all over, but she did get over a few times!

Looking at the bubbles with daddy

Cami and Poppy on the horse ride
Elena NOT getting on that horse. They did give our money back...
Elena liking the animals with mama, but not touching those goats, thanks. She did clap for the cow.
Walking through Boomsday.
Cami on the blow up toys-they had a whole area of them

She didn't love the fireworks, but didn't cry. She did shake her head "no" randomly at them.
Asking where they were when they stopped
Poppy, Mimi, and Cami
In the RV after the fireworks, washing off their feet in the tub.

That's all for this week! It's a lot! Nothing much going on this coming week, so I probably won't post again until mid-September! Have a happy Labor Day!

A picture post, finally.

2008-08-24T11:53:00.000-07:00

Here are a few from the last couple of weeks. I've been super tired with Leni, baby, and market and have just been a slacker.

Elena's new favorite after-bath game-getting IN her pillowcase. After she gets out of the bath, gets lotion all over for her eczema, and gets a diaper, she plays in her bed for twenty minutes or so which is mama's get-ready/clean-up the house time. This is her new favorite activity, and she's happiest when she can get Harriet in there too. Dress up shoes-$2 at target. They're real shoes, but I hate those dress up shoes with the clunky plastic heel. Too dangerous. She likes to put these on herself, and usually puts them on the wrong feet.
Being mama with her baby.

Last week at market-Aunt Avery and Uncle Nathan hadn't seen much of her lately, so they came to hang out. Elena likes puppies.
I returned dad's fax machine the other day, but this was her fun game in the meantime. She looks smart.
Playing in mama's moby wrap for Maeve. It's 5 1/2 yards of fabric...
This is her second tiny apple-we went to one market on Friday to get vegetables for Saturday, and a vendor gave her a little apple which she ate straight through. She didn't know about the core, I guess. I caught her before she ate too much of it, though! She got another at market, and has had another since.
Mom, Dad, and Cami came to visit at the market yesterday, and Cami got her face painted at one of the booths. They do really neat paintings.

One of the vendor's dogs had 9 puppies, and they brought two to let people see and maybe take home. They were ridiculously adorable. Cami and Elena liked them very much, also.
Last night was Pesto Festo. They've just started a Slow Food chapter in Knoxville, and this was their second event. It was at the farm of a vendor that we know, and was catered by most of our favorite Knoxville restaurants. We knew quite a few people there, but spent quite a bit of time with our friends with kids. Elena learned to say "chicken", and already knew "bok bok" so she's had fun putting them together. She was practicing in the car on the way to Panera this morning before church. She also already knew "pig" and learned "oink" last night, and was working on those. She's become much more vocal lately. Her favorite word this week is "yeah", which sounds funny from someone so little. I know, it should be "yes", but we say "yeah" anyway. And, it's a happy little "yeah". She was also practicing "Mimi", "Poppy", and "Cami" in the car, which she really got down this weekend. She's also started "asking" for certain songs by starting the hand motions, which is cute. A little distracting when you're trying to change her or get her dressed or to eat, but sweet.

I digress... Here, she and daddy are looking at chickens.
We went on a tour of Eric and Nicole's farm. Not that Elena and I heard a word of it-we were in the back with the rocks.

This is Elena's friend Wren-she goes to our baby class and comes to market, so we've gotten to know her parents pretty well too. She's super affectionate, which is funny since Elena is so not affectionate with others. She's been around Wren enough now, though, that she tolerates it pretty well, and has hugged her back once or twice. And, actually, has hugged other kids at church, which I'm sure is thanks to Wren.

Elena and Chris looking at the sheep in the barn on our walk.
They had two pigs who were so cute, which they then talked about "harvesting" next year. Kind of sad for Piggly and Wiggly.
Sarah and Tom's little boy, Huck, pushing Elena in the car. They both wanted in it, actually, and weren't sure about the whole "taking turns" thing. Huck's sister, Lily, is off to the side. Huck and Lily's (and Roan) mom is Sarah, who was one of Chris's really good friends in college. We'd kind of lost touch, and now she's in the holistic mom's group and comes to market, so we see quite a bit of her, which is fun. Elena and Huck are fairly close in age, and pretty similar in personality-both unsure of new people! Just fun to watch.
Elena and daddy right before we left. We had a nice time at the farm just playing and running around with other kids. And, eating delicious food. Anything that ends with Magpies cupcakes has to be good!

Okay, that's it for now. This week is my birthday, so I've got some fun things planned for me and Elena to do through the week, and then Sunday is Boomsday, which I'm sure Chris won't be able to talk his way out of! I love Boomsday! So, more pictures of actual events and not just Elena randomness, since we've done less since I'm so tired. I guess I'll just have to nap!

A little self-promotion...

2008-08-22T04:53:00.000-07:00

I know, I need to put up a picture post. But, for today, I thought I'd share the article I was interviewed for this week for the News Sentinel. You can follow the link to read it.

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/aug/22/flexibility-is-a-recipe-for-success/

more random pics

2008-08-13T14:49:00.000-07:00

It's been a little while since I posted, so here are some random ones. We've just kind of been around the last little while, nothing too major going on.

One from first Friday a couple of weeks ago. This is her new backpack/leash. I never approved until I had her. Here, she's looking for the kitties that live in Vagabondia. We look for them every week, but they never really like her to find them. She had a good time having mama put bows in her hair. Less good of a time having mama take them out.
The first Monday of the month, Magpies has a sampling of their three signature flavors for the month, and you can go try a mini one of each and vote. It's from 12-5, for those of you who are curious. This month's flavors were Creamsicle, Hummingbird, and Reese cup. She's about to try the Reese cup, which I thought we'd both like and neither one did. Hummingbird won in both our book. She tried to grab another, in fact.

We were the only ones there, so she ran around a good bit. Lots of windows to look through.

Since we're expecting another girl, I've been sorting clothes into sizes and seasons. I'm in nesting mode even though Maeve's arrival is at least 4 months away. Elena loves putting on clothes, so even though it was 95 outside, she got into the sweaters.
She's reading The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience (I don't know how to underline on blogger) by Ron Sider. It flips nicely.
She loves a game where we pretend to be asleep, and she wakes us up. Just this week, she figured out that she could pretend to be asleep and be woken up, but she just can't bear to actually close her eyes and not look at you. Here is her pretend sleeping face.
A new favorite game that daddy taught her that will probably come back to bite us...playing driving in the car. She particularly wants to wear a seat belt and have someone sit beside her.

That's it for this last week. We have several more interesting things coming up, so maybe we'll actually have something to post soon, rather than just random Elena-ness.

A post of random things

2008-08-01T14:46:00.000-07:00

This post has pictures from left on the camera from the last three weeks, so bear with me.

This was my sister-in-law Pam with her "salad" at the place that throws rolls in Gulf Shores. The "plate" it's on is bread. Trying on hats at the souvenir shop
Riding daddy's new bike-a favorite pasttime of both

Finally, a picture with her new kitchen!
A crazy morning...
Her newest thing is to put something in place (baby in high chair, blocks...here it was two chairs and a baby in one), grab your hand, and take you to "show" you what she's done. She'll tell you all about it in gibberish too. Sweet.

A picture of her big sister shirt. She wasn't too excited that everyone saw her and started exclaiming-too much commotion that she didn't understand, I guess.

Last Friday was Cami's preschool graduation. She had a good time singing all the songs, and eating ice cream afterwards!

Elena took my hand the other day and had me get her pillow, blanket, and Harriet out of her bed, then directed me to the couch where she pointed to where she wanted them. She got it all set up the way she goes to bed, at about 10 in the morning and on the couch where she never sleeps. She was pretty proud that she'd directed so well, though.

This week was a big one for our family-Avery's husband Nathan decided to get baptized! We have all prayed for years, and were so excited to get to help celebrate Nathan's decision. Grant Standefer who was the preacher at Farragut for years and married them came to the lake to baptize him. Here are a few pictures-as a story for how excited everyone was-Doug Nemeth was at dinner and had ordered, found out about Nathan's baptism, cancelled his order, and came to the lake! I think it's a pretty neat story for how excited everyone was to share with him!

Afterwards, most of us went to mom and dad's for dinner and some hanging out time. The family stayed later, of course. And, luckily, late enough for the red velvet cake that they'd forgotten to get out for everyone else! Cami and Elena had some good time reading with Uncle Nathan.

That's all for now, though I'm posting this after we've just gotten back from First Friday, so I already have more for next week!

some advice?

2008-08-01T13:41:00.001-07:00

I don't know who all reads this blog, but if someone out there has had to have a c-section and then attempted a VBAC, I would be interested in hearing about it. It is looking more and more like the direction we're going, and while I've talked to midwives and nurses, I haven't talked to anyone who's actually gone through it. Any advice?

18 months and 5 year old pictures

2008-07-29T12:52:00.000-07:00

Newbie is a...

2008-07-24T13:30:00.000-07:00

GIRL!!!

Everyone thought this one would be a boy! It has been such a different pregnancy...oh well-we were wrong! I was hoping for Elena it would be a sister, so I'm glad that it is. And, no more boy name debate! Her name will be Celia Maeve, but we'll call her Maeve! I don't even have to change my pink blog background!

Here's the shirt Elena is going to wear tonight! (I'm creating this post before we tell, but won't post it until after...so you'll have to wait for pictures of her actually wearing it!) Now some pics of Maeve! Here's a sweet profile shot
Proof...
And really sweet little feet!
Here's Elena practicing...we're wondering if she'll be disappointed when her sister is white!

There's our big news! Also, she's measuring exactly on schedule, and looks perfect! Thanks for your prayers!

Thursday

2008-07-21T07:13:00.000-07:00

We've been really excited about finding out the baby's gender this Thursday, but the appointment is also to make sure everything is ok. The closer it gets, the more anxious I am about it, and it wasn't like that with Elena. On the other hand, when I was pregnant with her, I hadn't had a miscarriage, and we had so much other craziness going on that it didn't seem that we could handle anything else going wrong, so maybe I just didn't consider it as much. Anyway, if you'd keep us and newbie in your thoughts and prayers as we go on Thursday, we'd appreciate it. And, check back (we'll say Friday, but probably it'll be up Thursday night!) to see what we learned about little one! Thanks.

18 months

2008-07-17T05:52:00.000-07:00

I took lots of beach pictures for her 18 month birthday, though we'll have professional ones done too. She looks so sweet. Most don't require explanation, so I'll let those be.
Hiding...
Peekaboo! (or, as she says, "dereitis")

John and Susan
Us
Cliff and Pam (Happy 4th Anniversary today!)

Really precious tiny footprints

Smelling the grass

"dere it is!"
I tried to get her to smile, and "if you're happy and you know it" worked, but with hands.

That's all the pictures!

at the beach

2008-07-17T05:31:00.000-07:00

After the party, we went to Gulf Shores. Elena had a super time in the sand and water-the child is virtually fearless!
Pam came up with the great idea of having a little pool under the canopy so she didn't get burned. It was a hit!
On our morning walk in our pajamas-we met this little dog named Tino. She saw him and said "play?". So, we did.

Sitting in the waves with mama and daddy. FYI, we both had to buy swimsuits because neither of us have owned one since we've been married, at least. And, mine is maternity, of course. Lovely. (we're going to the beach in September too, so I figured it was a worthwhile investment).
Trying on Grandpa's scuba flippers
She LOVED the swimming pool, and got very fearless jumping off the side to mama.
Chris attempting to see if he could bury himself

Sweet beach girl covering her legs like daddy!

Making a shark with a movable "tongue"

She decided she liked her sunglasses on this trip

She much prefers daddy wear the flippers than her.
Climbing up the sand mountain built on Uncle Cliff (with Aunt Pam's help)
Watching the water with Grandpa and Nana

She liked to fill the bucket, then carry it somewhere to dump it

Kicking the ball Ms. Kay brought to play with.
Jumping in the waves with daddy and Nana
Testing out the water with mama

Grandma's birthday and a few from the week

2008-07-17T05:19:00.000-07:00

This week we went to Meridian for Chris's Grandma's 90th birthday party, then to Gulf Shores for a beach trip. I've started 3 posts for the giant number of pictures, so get ready.

Here are a few from the previous week, before we left on our trip.
Elena saying "ta da" because she managed to get both feet in her box. She's started to really talk more. She says "there it is" (as one word), "play", "whee", "uh-oh", "please", "um" (when you ask a question, like she's thinking of a response), "hmm" (when looking for something), pseudo-counts to three (hmm, whoo, free) when she's going to jump, and I'm sure I"ve missed a few. She said "thank you" today when prompted, so that's good. She's about as cute as she can be. Loving on Ms. Amber's kitties before we went berry picking.

Trip to Meridian-we had a surprise party for Grandma and took pictures of everyone who came for a scrapbook. Here are a few.

Elena and John (there are more of Elena than Grandma, but I was in charge of pics!)

Leni and the guest of honor
Very into the giant mirror
Making faces in a mirror with daddy
Family picture

Whole group picture

Helping Grandma open presents
Chasing Aunt Vernie's cat, Slider.
Flying an airplane around the house, saying "whee". Don't know where she learned it.

And, on to the next post!

Berry picking!

2008-07-11T04:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to pick blackberries at the Fruit and Berry patch. Elena had a fantastic time and was so funny. It was pouring before we got there, and drizzling most of the time we were there. Nice to not have lots of other people, but a little messy! Her favorite thing was walking in the puddles, and she loved picking berries and eating them!

Since it was raining, I couldn't use my camera, but Sonya had hers and was nice enough to send on the pics!
Playing in puddles Sonya and Amber went with us (from small group)
Ta-da! Very messy!
She sampled the fruit quite a few times.
On the porch while mama bought our berries.

Splashing!
Blackberries are delicious, but tart!

Happy dirty girl!

She's such a water baby! I didn't add any pics from the week since there were only three, but we have a lot going on this weekend/week-probably enough for several posts!

4th of July and a sad event

2008-07-07T10:40:00.000-07:00

This week we didn't take many pictures at all until the 4th, where I took lots. In fact, this first one is the only one I had taken. We'd gotten slurpies (for the first time in..what..a decade?) and Elena was not okay with her daddy's blue tongue, at all. (though, in fact, hers was blue too) Farragut 4th of July parade with Poppy.
And daddy and Cami
She was most impressed with the marching band and the animals in trucks.

Mom and Cami went and got lots of red, white, and blue paraphrenalia and passed it out at the parade. Cami was interested in passing out the flags for awhile, but she looks cute with so many in her hands.
Friday night we went to Ave and Nathan's and made all sorts of deliciousness. Grilled pizzas (barbeque chicken for them and marinated portabellas and eggplant for us), halloumi cheese and nectarines (which was absolutely amazing), strawberry stuff (sprinkle family tradition), as well as all kinds of snacks! Avery told me to bring toys for Leni, but she ended up playing with a cat bed and the sprinkler. Several of them got quite a workout pulling her around the house in the cat bed!
Putting "babies" in the cat bed and covering them up
Playing pillow mountain with aunt Avery.

That's it for the pictures. We did have a sad day yesterday, our cat Jack had to be put down. He had been hiding for longer periods for a couple of days, but yesterday morning he laid in front of his bowls and just cried when I pet him. Chris was leading worship and had rehearsal, so Leni and I took him to the vet. Chris came and got her for church, and the vet came to tell me that he has a chronic condition where fluid builds up in his chest and he can't breathe, and while they could do some painful things to have him live a little longer, it was a fatal disease and he'd feel like he was suffocating in the meantime. We didn't want that, so after going to talk to Chris and calling my dad and Avery, we decided the only humane thing to do was to let him go. It went as well as possible and I was able to be there, and he seemed very comfortable. So, a sad day for us. Elena has "asked" for him a couple of times when she sees a kitty in a book, and it's amazing how much I considered him-just making sure certain doors are closed or that I'm not about to step on him or that he hasn't gotten outside while I bring in groceries. I've caught myself checking for him a couple dozen times, which is hard to be reminded. He was a good cat who was so tolerant of Elena-she loved and hugged and kissed him numerous times a day. So, he'll be missed by us all.

A short picture post

2008-07-01T09:28:00.000-07:00

First, I know that for whatever reason, if you don't have a blogger account, it won't let you vote on the blog. There isn't any way for me to change that, so if you want to vote and can't, just leave a comment or email me (aksprinkle@gmail.com). We do think it's interesting that everyone is voting on two so far, though.

This week Cami spent the night one night, and we all went to see the Everybody Fields at Sundown. It was a good show, and the girls had fun playing. Elena pretty much adores Cami and follows her everywhere, and Cami is a pretty good sport about it.

Dancing in the park Elena dancing while Cami rode on Chris's back. She was a hit with the people sitting around us-she really got into dancing.
I took her bathtub out so that she and Cami could take a bath together, and she was very interested in it being on the ground. She also kept trying to put it back in the tub.
We finally ordered a play kitchen for her (the one at Target that we wanted was discontinued) and it's shipped but isn't here yet. But, just to practice, we got out the chef outfit I got her. She is VERY into dress up right now.
At the park-maybe Saturday? She found this old stump and climbed in. She was pretty cute sitting in it.

Chris did that "dad" thing with the swing-where you push them high and run under it (my dad did it, at least), and she thought it was hilarious. Then he did this, which was also hilarious.
One of the vendors gave me a couple of fresh peaches, and here she's licking the juice off her arm.
Reading to herself
I taught her "cheers" yesterday (for the second time, actually-we'd just forgotten to do it for awhile) and after she "cheered" with us, she would clink two teacups together and "cheer" herself. Cute.

Name that baby

2008-06-29T11:01:00.000-07:00

Okay,
We are having a hard time coming up with a name for a boy, which is what everyone seems to think this one will be. For the question I know will come next, if it's a girl, her name will be Celia Maeve and we'll call her Maeve. But, we've gone back and forth for a boy, and still don't have a consensus. We were trying again today, going through books, and this is the list that we came up with (see poll on right). Like Chris said, we aren't going to go with what is chosen just because it's chosen, but if you have a reason, leave a comment and let us know. The poll is just for fun, and we thought it'd be interesting to see what people chose, since none are really common names. Jonas Quinn was our name forever, but since it turns out to be a Stargate character, it's off the list in that format. Keep in mind that if it is a boy, it'll probably be on the shorter side (from both of us, unfortunately), and pretty thin if he takes after his daddy. And, it has to be a name that will grow with him. Later, maybe we'll have a middle name poll since it has to be able to stand on it's own, so if he's ever a musician, artist, or owns a company, he can use his own name. Elena Gray, for instance, could be any of those. Alright, vote, vote away.

17 months

2008-06-23T07:34:00.000-07:00

Elena is really into dressing herself-just with things that aren't her clothes! She likes to wear ours and spends quite a bit of time a day trying to put things on-our shoes, clothes for later that are two sizes too big for her, and silly hats! At Kenny Smith's birthday last week-he was trying to get her to lick the speed racer car off the cake, but her daddy had to show her what was good about that!

Loving the Smith's dog, Anne, who is very tolerant.

On Father's Day, I put her hair in pigtails for the first time. She looked giant!
Riding in the cozy coupe with Aunt Avery's help
We helped with the new rootclip.com video Tuesday, and this is Leni running down a big hill to her daddy. She only ran 5 feet of the big hill, but did have a sad tumble later that night that ended with a neurotic mama calling every medical person I could find... (she's fine now...)
Cami got a new kitten that's living at mom and dad's for now, and it is the cutest thing ever. And, likes Elena.
We went to Townsend with Mom, Dad, Ave, and Nate on Saturday, and Mom, Elena, and I went to the Y while everyone else went bike riding. The rocks were sharp, and I was glad I'd brought swimmy shoes for her. She's pretty fearless! Swimming lessons are next...

Walking on the rocks with Mimi.
Catching fireflies with daddy

Playing with Elmo (the kitten) in the RV.

Talking to the kitty-she did say "hi kitty" and earlier she said "hey puppy" to Avery's new neighbor's pit bull puppy-who was so cute it made us all want one.
"smiling" when daddy told us to-it's her "happy and you know it" smile, but no real one!
Loving on her own kitty
We were both busy, and she wanted to be read to, so we asked her to read to her baby. She sat it down and read, which made both of us stop what we were doing and watch!

Lots of kissing and water...and a trip to Chattanooga

2008-06-10T06:59:00.000-07:00

We had a fun week with lots of activities. We skipped market this week and worked on getting the house in order and having fun time together, which was nice. Market is fun, but exhausting!

This week Chris had a meeting one night, so we met Aunt Avery at the mall. She taught Elena to throw pennies in the fountain, which she really enjoyed once she got it. Daddy found an inch worm on his pants after doing yard work, and Elena liked it very much. Here, she's trying to kiss it. She also loves bees very much, so we have to be careful about that...no kissing bees.
I bought her this little pool last week, and she really enjoyed filling it. She really did not enjoy getting in it, though.
We heard about a water park really close to our house that we didn't know about-and I thought I knew everything free to do in Knoxville! She liked the small fountains, and she liked it when we'd swing her legs in the bigger ones.
Saturday night we celebrated Chris's birthday (which is today) at the much acclaimed Senor Taco restaurant. All in all, a little disappointing for the hype (it's one of those dives that everyone seems to know about) but fun to be together. Here's Elena hugging Uncle Nathan's neck. Most conversation seemed to go around bikes, since Chris, Avery and Nathan had all gone shopping for them that day.

Elena loves to shut doors on us and have us knock to get back out, but she's just figured out how to knock herself. Cute.
Yesterday we took an impromptu trip to Chattanooga since Chris had to work. He dropped us off downtown and we went to the aquarium and to eat lunch, then met him at Coolidge park. Leni liked the aquarium much more than I thought she would.
Playing around the fountains outside the aquarium.
Kissing the seahorses through the glass.

Kissing the turtle through the glass. The turtles were her favorite all day.

They had a really neat butterfly garden and she loved chasing the butterflies. They release some everyday, and had several that they were letting kids hold while their wings dried off, then they were supposed to put them on a leaf where they'd be safe. One little girl was trying to be sweet and put one on Elena. She apparently didn't notice it at first, so I got a few pictures that are sweet.

Then, mama pointed it out and she FRIEKED out. She threw the poor little thing on the ground. I picked it up and saved it, but she was done with butterflies after that.
I thought she'd love the penguins (who doesn't) but she didn't care one bit about them. Here's how tall she is next to them, though.

This is in the undersea cavern. There's water all around you. You can see the shadow on the floor of water moving. No matter what, I could not convince her it was safe to walk across, so I went and picked her up.

Playing in the fountains outside of the aquarium for real-with swimsuit and sunscreen on.
Playing at Coolidge park. She got less shy as the day went on.

Kissing the turtle

That's our week. I also want to say Happy Birthday to Chris! It's his 29th birthday today. We started with sleeping in and cinnamon rolls, and even a goodbye kiss from munchkin who only kisses animals and inanimate objects, and we're bike shopping and having dinner at La Costa tonight! Sounds like a fun day for daddy! We love you!

Video

2008-06-03T12:17:00.000-07:00

I've got three more that I'm trying to upload, but it's not going well so far. But, my sister requested a dancing video, so here is one. I came home the other night and this is what I walked in to-the cutest kid ever. I'll try to get up the others soon-she has more "moves" in one of them.

2008-06-02T19:42:00.000-07:00

Two Thursdays ago, we went to Sundown with Avery and Nathan to see Presidents of the United States. They sing a song called Kitty, and this is Elena asking where the kitties are during the song. Playing with Aunt Avery and Uncle Nathan

Nathan taking an arty picture of Leni and the TVA building.
She loved hummus the other day and kept eating it out of the container with her hands when she ran out of chips.
We found her like this the other day-with all the tp on the floor and very proud of herself-and waving at us.

Drinking out of a cup at market last week
We met mom and Cami so that I could take Cami with us to baby class on Thursday, and waited for them in Office Max. Leni was pretty fussy knowing we were going to see them and they weren't there, but then we found a tv behind the counter where they were showing the movie Cats and Dogs. It is a stupid movie, but she was just interested in the animals anyway, and kept laughing and waving at them. People had to go around us to check out...
She thinks peekaboo is super funny now.

We went to Dollywood with mom and Cami on Friday. They had a good time playing on the baby rides. Elena wasn't super into it at first, but after a couple of rides, she would cry when she had to get off. She didn't get why she couldn't stay. Then, she got away from me and ran up and got on a ride again. There wasn't a line, but it was pretty funny to watch her ducking under the bar...

At Dollywood, mom bought them each a "prize" and Elena picked out this puppy purse backpack thing. She has not once used it as a purse, but it has been fed milk in the highchair and wheeled around in the stroller so far.
Tonight we had a church outing at Victor Ashe Park and Elena and Emily were being so sweet! They're only two days apart, but they were super cute holding hands together.

a quick post to clear my camera

2008-05-22T10:49:00.000-07:00

I need to recharge my camera, so thought I'd post the little I had remaining on it. These first few of little bit are from this morning. We went to a special baby class at the UT Arboreteum. Well, I thought it was a special one-as it turns out, it's a free UT program that will be there every Thursday in the summer at 10:30-it just so happened to start with our librarian. It was great, definitely something we'll keep going to, and she loved to play outside in the gardens. And, in two weeks, they'll have sprinklers afterwards, which will be super fun since she loves water so much!

This is my favorite of the day-she's doing the "your face will surely show it" part of the "If you're happy and you know it" song. She was tired by the time I started taking pictures, so I didn't get many of her facing me. This is also the newest mama-made dress, so I wanted to get a few good pictures in it. It's my favorite so far.

Last night, at the last minute, we found out that one of the girls in mom's girl scout troop that I help with was the valedictorian of her fifth grade class, and was going to make a speech at graduation. Chris was able to come home in time, so I got to go.

This is a picture of the Heaven I sat with, also in our troop
This is the other Heaven, the valedictorian, making her speech. She did a great job.
This is Heaven's family-her sister Julisa is in our troop also.

I was glad I got to go-though both Heaven's wanted to know why I didn't bring Elena! A good night, though, all in all.

16 months...and a kitten

2008-05-21T10:21:00.000-07:00

Here is the new kitten-we have found somewhere to bring him next Tuesday, but if anyone wants a funny kitten, thought I'd post. John and Susan came by for a night on their way to a wedding, and Elena had a good time running around with one shoe. She didn't want to put the other one on or take that one off.
When Chris got home, she had a 20 minute "conversation"-she was very intently telling him something about the chair and the cats, but in baby gibberish. It was really cute though-lots of inflection and expression.
Telling daddy all about the chair.
Looking at baby kitten with mama.

Playing with money...just funny to watch her with it. She'd stack it up and throw it.

Reading with Grandpa.
Playing with Playdoh-her very favorite pasttime lately.
This kitty is little-she likes to point to Jack and make "big" hands, then squat by kitten

Sitting with Nana and Grandpa
Sunday we went to Israelfest. Her first school bus ride from the parking lot. Incidentally, I used to work at the AJCC (Arnstein Jewish Community Center), so it was fun to be back. I'm sure some of my camp kids were there, but that would have been 9 years ago, so I didn't recognize anyone.
Digging for treasures in teh sand.
Looking at camels

We have a pretty quiet week this week-I haven't taken any new pictures since Sunday! Tomorrow is another baby class, but at the Arboreteum, so I am sure that will involve picture taking.

Also, in baby related news....

Many of you know that our boy name forever (and we don't know what this one is yet, obviously) has been Jonas Quinn. Since there has recently been a boy band called the Jonas Brothers, we were taking it off the list, even though we have loved it forever. And then today, I hear that Jonas Quinn is one of the original Stargate members. So, apparently, we have the same exact taste as some sci-fi writers and Disney. Yikes. We're going to have to work hard for our next inspiration...

Some little news...

2008-05-18T10:24:00.000-07:00

We have some little news (again!)

We're working on another one, due on Christmas Day!

mothers day and the week

2008-05-16T09:49:00.000-07:00

We found a great new park that has play equipment in Elena's size, and baby swings. This is the first tube slide she could do alone. Playing with daddy
Clapping!

She LOVES water fountains-they kind of gross me out, to be honest.
On Mother's Day at the mall-a little unsure of the giant bear.
Very sure, however, that she liked the Victoria's Secret puppies.
Playing at the Rush playground

Her first in mall ride on one of those put in a quarter (or in this case, a dollar) rides
She loves Jack's cat food and isn't allowed to touch it, so she was thrilled when I let her use a giant slotted spoon to stir the old and new food together.
Mom let her have her first ice cream sandwich. A hit, I think.
Amy Simmerman's birthday party-we got seated outside, which was great for letting a one year old run around.
Chris let me sleep in a little for Mother's Day, then we went to Panera and church. He and Elena got me flowers, chocolate (which is always good), and a necklace that is the same as the one I got in Moldova that I lost that I loved! Except, this one was a little bigger and a locket. Pretty good! I've worn it every day, and there's a tiny picture of me and Elena last Mother's day in it. I'll have to post a picture. After her nap, we went to the mall (since it was raining), then met the rest of my family for dinner at Abuelo's. A great day!

On another note, anybody need a kitten? I dropped by work yesterday to pick something up, and found a five week old black and white kitten. Oddly, this kitten has a deformity and also only has one eye! How many people HAVE a one eyed cat and FIND a one eyed cat? Sigh. I don't know what we're going to do with it. Really, if anyone is interested...you can have it. It's sweet as can be.

our week-15 1/2 months

2008-05-05T12:30:00.000-07:00

Last week was the shower for Samantha and Kaori. Here are a few pictures...
Alison and Kaori Samantha opening gifts-she got several orange things. Welcome to Tennessee, I guess!

Some of the hostesses
A sad Kaori!

Elena trying to climb in my lap
Being "gentle" with Mrs. Casey's foxes.
Elena and Mimi checking out Kaori (and her mama!)
My uncle Steve is visiting my parents, and Elena is quite the fan of his dog, Maggie.

Gigi came to visit too, but got sick so had to enjoy watching Elena from a distance.

Catching bubbles!
She likes to ride in the cozy coupe, but she also likes to push it.
Reading with uncle Steve at the Rush playground last week
Helping uncle Nathan open his birthday present (a golf club)!

At a Half Handed Cloud concert at Tomato Head Tuesday.

Helping mama figure out how to single-handedly put up a tent for market

Her new fvorite thing-play-doh!
Playing with Poppy in the backyard

following Cami-well, everywhere

Godsisters matching drinks
Playing in the playhouses being auctioned off at the market Saturday.
She loves to find laundry-dirty laundry, unfortunately, and put it on herself. Before my dirty shirt, she had underwear, but this seemed photo-acceptable!
She loves to brush her teeth!

15 months

2008-04-27T10:10:00.000-07:00

We've spent lots of time outside since it's been prettier this week. These are from the other night when Elena and Daddy were "helping" me put out plants.

Sitting on the big tree stump in our yard.

Elena and Jack escaping
Helping mama with the seedlings
She LOVES the water hose, and this is the first time I've let her get completely soaked by it.

Reading "cuteoverload.com" again.

Wednesday we went to baby class and met Avery afterwards, but ran into Rhea and Emmett while we were waiting. They're three weeks apart. Emmett is super sweet and wanted to hug Elena, and this was her response!
Got her!
Mimi got a "cozy coupe" and she's had lots of fun playing with it this week since we've been over quite a bit to see Gigi and Steve.

Chris took this picture to show how high Dad's grass was-he's super anal about his grass usually, and has cut it twice in two days since this picture was taken!

Trying to climb out of the front of the cozy coupe
Being adventurous at the playground at the mall.
Friday night we met Mimi, Poppy, Cami, Avery, and Nathan at the Dogwood Arts parade.

Mimi and Cami
Poppy and Leni
Cami and Nathan

Playing chicken?
Both trying to stand in one chair at Downtown Grill and Brewery
Singing If you're happy and you know it....again
We both had veggie burgers that came with guacamole, which Elena LOVED very much! She dipped fries in it and licked it off, then gave up and ate it with her hands and licked the container!

I've got lots more pictures for this coming week already, so I'll try to post again this week!

good news, and our week!

2008-04-21T14:26:00.000-07:00

First things first, I wanted to let you all know that we got results from Elena's EEG today, and they are normal! We are so thankful and had lots of tears on the way home from Louisville today! She goes to the doctor tomorrow for her regular 15 month check up, so I can get any other info I need to, but the nurse called to say...NORMAL! Thank you for your prayers-I was really afraid that we wouldn't have such good news and am so praising God that it is good! After a lot of fear before we started really asking for prayers-we could really feel the peace that was prayed over us. We appreciate your prayers and concerns more than you will know!

And, now for some pics from the week! It's been busy since last Saturday, to say the least! Saturday was the Barn Dance from church, and Chris came in either second or third with his chili-we still aren't sure! Here's Abby Wallace pushing Emily Edwards on the neat swings in the Anderson's yard-Emily and Leni are two days apart. Leni and Daddy looking at chickens

Mama and Leni petting the horse-well, mama anyway!
Just that day the Andersons had gotten two baby pot bellied pigs-they were so tiny and squeaky!

Elena clapping for the baby pigs and calling them to her...I seem to think that baby pigs aren't really called piglets-isn't that right Becca?
While Chris and I danced, Scott Robinson got some practice in as grandfather to a baby girl-since his is due in July!
Leni "dancing"
Chris's group later in the night-you can't tell, but everyone else's group is dancing while his tries to figure out what's going on!

Friday we went to Mt. Washington to see Chris's parents and grandmother. Here's Grandma, Susan, and Leni on the porch swing.

Walking with Grandpa-I love these behind-walking shots
Tiny baby birds-when we first got there, only two had hatched and there were three eggs left. The next day, there were four hatched and one egg. We forgot to check Sunday.
Looking at the baby robins
Walking with Nana and Grandma

Not wanting to smell the pretty flowers.

She's big into pointing right now-especially if she finds some random stranger that she likes and smiles at-she'll immediately point out all of the people around that she knows, kind of like "there's my mama, there's my daddy, there's....whoever she knows". Cute.
Playing in the sand at the playground.
Tappan boys climbing, as always.
My attempt at an arty-shot with the shadows of the jungle gym.

Leni not liking see-sawing.

Swinging-as usual, she loves it and never wants to get down, but also doesn't smile.
My grandmother was in Louisville this weekend also getting ready to help my uncle move to Knoxville, but it ends up that she'll be there over a week. Mom came up with the idea for Chris to drop off me and Leni to keep her company and she drove up last night and stayed and brought us back today. It was a good visit, and I think Gigi was glad for the company. This is mom and Leni watching cartoons this morning-Leni wanted to blanket up around her neck and her arms under it.
Kissing a horse downtown
Playing in fountains with Mimi-she loves water. I have to be careful when watering my plants or she'll soak herself.
Shame on me, I didn't get a single picture of Leni with Gigi. But, she's coming to Knoxville in a couple of days, so I'll remedy that. Mostly, when we were out of the hotel and I was with just Gigi, I was carrying Leni, so there is a reason... Elena has started doing super cute things-she still is mooing, and today she was kissing my hand and her baby dolls and her own foot...cute. She loves music and to dance, and has gotten very opinionated now that she can shake her head (well, whole body) for "no". We are having to learn not to ask questions when she doesn't have a choice. Today we went on a cigarette stomping walk-every cigarette butt we passed she wanted to step on it, since that's what I do so that she won't pick them up. Now, she thinks that's what you do with cigarettes! Goofy girl... She is the sweetest thing!

this morning

2008-04-17T04:29:00.000-07:00

Just a reminder that if you could send up a word for us this morning, it would be appreciated. Elena has her EEG at 8:30-it's currently 7:30 and she would so like to go to sleep! They had us keep her up until midnight (thanks, mom and dad for running around Walmart and IHOP with us) and get her up at 5 so that she'd be sleep deprived! She's being a pretty good sport though-she's currently clacking Legos together in the tub. Anyway, pray that the EEG shows anything that's there, but that the "anything" is "nothing". Also, that the technician would find anything there and that the neurologists would be able to read it correctly and that if there is a diagnosis other than "a fluke that shouldn't occur again", that they find out what it is immediately. And for poor Leni, who is surely hungry and definitely tired by now and we haven't started yet. And whatever else God leads you to. Thanks.

Oh-and there probably won't be an update, since they've already told us that we won't hear anything until next week. The neurologists take 3 days to read it (at least), then send it to our pediatrician and he will meet with us. So, no news for now.

and...a few borrowed pics

2008-04-11T20:14:00.000-07:00

Okay, I realized when looking at my last post and looking back through the pictures taken that not one showed her lovely little face! So, I copied two so you can see how sweet Dave and Samantha's little one is! This is my favorite so far of little Kaori... And, this one is so sweet of her smiling
Isn't she darling? Elena will have lots of fun playing with her new friend-though it may be awhile before she's too interested in her-she was a little unsure on Tuesday! But, she does love baby dolls, so we'll see! Welcome Kaori!

Welcome Kaori, and our week!

2008-04-11T19:56:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, I still haven't worked out the new way blogger pics are loading, so I'll have to explain as we go...
These are from today-we went to the Dogwood Arts festival this morning, and Leni had lots of fun running around.

Tuesday we finally met Kaori! Our small group has been praying for the Harris's adoption process since the beginning, and we were all so excited to finally see her! She was adorable, and it was nice to hold such a little one again-just about half the size of Elena now! She's very strong for being so tiny and was so alert with everything in McAlisters. These were supposed to be underneath the others, but didn't load right.

Trying a lemon...which she liked! Tuesday afternoon we also went to help put together bags for a teen parent conference. Leni liked this box, and she liked running around with Emily.
Elena and Emily in the box-they are two days apart. They were funny taking each other's bears, then trading, but they're really too little to get too possessive about things yet. They were interested in each other's sippy cups and pacis, however. These are the same day that we did pictures at Crescent Bend, hence the same dress.

Okay, this was supposed to be the beginning of the post:
This is some of the "welcome home" stuff at the Harris's house.

It either says "welcome", or it says "to our home", but I'm pretty sure it's "welcome"-though probably not really correct. Anyway, a good try!
Small group's first meeting-looking at Amber
Chris, Elena, and Amber with the proud new parents, Samantha and Dave, and Kaori.

That's all for now!

2008-04-08T09:12:00.000-07:00

Last week was the Girl Scout initiation ceremony, which mostly Mom made up! The girls really liked it, though, and were really into helping. We had our usual "meeting", then got ready and had the moms, grandmas, whoever, come see the ceremony. Here, Chrissy and McKayla are doing their "read and respond" time with Elena. That last one was out of order because blogger is still being difficult. Here she is playing in Mrs. Polly's rocks, as usual.
Smelling a flower...I have to be careful now-I taught her to smell mint, and now she'll go pick off huge pieces of it to smell and to let everyone else smell!
Back to Girl Scouts-Jorday mixing fruit drinks

Dan'Shai, Julisa, and Essence working on decorating cookies
Chrissy trying to make a fussy Elena happy
Oh-how to spell this one...Tajaneisha? and one of the Heaven's playing with Leni
Julisa and Marlaina getting ready to serve plates

Ms. Haley supervising the stirring...

The ceremony-for being such "cool kids" they totally got into it and sang the songs, did the pledges, etc. Cute.

Playing with the Smith's dog at small group number 2
Trying to gather up all the individual pieces of the metro pulse to carry around.

Sunday night we went to Arlington Church of Christ to hear Patrick Mead, who was Jenny's pastor growing up. We didn't really agree with him, but afterwards everyone came over to our house to be guinea pigs for my hand pies for market. They had good advice! Here, we're showing Sonya and Amber cuteoverload.com and the stuffwhitepeoplelike site. Leni really likes cute overload and runs over whenever the computer is out wanting to see kitties. And, getting pretty frustrated if it's just gmail.

Some pictures from yesterday. I had another post all about yesterday, but it got a little more personal than is probably appropriate for blog world. Yesterday I had Leni out for one quick errand and a trip to the park. She was acting tired (so I thought) in the car, so I was trying to keep her awake. When I went to get her out of her carseat, she was completely unresponsive. Her eyes were open, but she wasn't blinking, responding, anything, and I'm pretty sure she wasn't breathing, but I was in a panic and might just not have noticed. I shook her and said her name, then started yelling, and she still didn't respond. I yanked her out of that carseat, and she did blink and start looking around, though she was still out of it. She did come around after several more seconds, and seemed totally fine. I called the doctor and he had her come in, and said it could be a fluke, weird thing that happened, or she could have had a seizure. They set up an EEG for April 17, which is next Thursday. That one minute was, hands down, the worst minute of my life, and we are still recuperating today. Please keep her in your prayers, and pray that this was a weird, isolated incident. Pray also for us, because we are pretty freaked out. I feel pretty "done" with catastrophe, and am having a hard time swallowing this.

These are at the park after the "incident", waiting for our doctor's appointment

Last night we went to one of Chris's old Yoke kid's art shows-since now she's graduating from college! Chris was feeling a little old...
Showing daddy how we like water fountains

Posing with Kylie at her art show! We were at another art show last week, and someone said something about it being her first art show. We realized, she's been to at least ten! She's a cultured fourteen month old...

Today we went to Crescent Bend to take pictures instead of having them taken somewhere for her 15 month portraits. She wasn't in a super mood, but here are some pretty cute ones!

Singing "If you're happy and you know it clap your hands"

Gathering rocks

Waving to the water

That's it for now-but I've got some from bagging bears and blankets, and tonight we meet Kaori, so I'm sure I'll have some then!

websites

2008-04-04T19:54:00.000-07:00

A couple of new websites that not everyone will appreciate, but we thought we'd share anyway. One is cuteoverload.com, and it has new pictures of animals daily. The other is stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com, and is completely wrong and completely hilarious. And, maybe a little closer to home than I'd like to admit!

weekend trip

2008-04-03T04:54:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we made a couple of out of town family visits. And, sorry it's taken so long to post-this is Day #3 trying but blogger wasn't being helpful, and still made me load them all one at a time. And, not in order. Anyway.
First, we went to Chattanooga last week for Chris to work and for Elena and I to kill some time while waiting for him so we could all go to Atlanta. I always go to the Coolidge park side of the river, but thought that I'd try a few places on the other side that day. We tried Warehouse Row, which had nothing except a friendly dog in one of the two stores left in it, and we went to a paper store which was absolutely lovely. We took the free electric trolley and had a nice time car-seat-less, then went to Grayfriar's and had the prettiest mocha I've ever had and met a service dog and replacement puppy, which Elena loved. After Chris got off work, we left for Atlanta to visit Deedee and David and for Chris to see their amazing new/old house. It's older than ours (which is 80), but completely gorgeous and redone, and gives us lots of ideas for a "someday" house and a new passion for antique stores. We had a really great time visiting. Friday we ordered delicious food from a store in walking distance and wished we had such amazing things so close! (Chris had sweet potato ravioli with brown butter and sage, I had fried green tomatoes with caramelized onions and apple infused goat cheese. Um...amazing.) Then we went to the shabbat service at the synagogue. Elena was pretty busy in the back of the synagogue...but she was pretty good! Saturday we went to the park, then while Elena slept Deedee and I went to Whole Foods (and Friday we fit in a Trader Joe's visit! Chris says that not everyone bases vacations around interesting grocery stores, and will immediately tell everyone the story about Publix. If you don't know it, I'm sure he'd be more than happy to share!) Sadly, I left my new bay leaf herb plant there, so I'll have to track down another one. Saturday afternoon we walked around really interesting stores all over Decatur, and I wrote a million ideas and recipes all over a bag of goldfish since I forgot my journal! We cooked dinner at their house Saturday night, and for dessert we had a "tasting" of 6 kinds of mini vosges bars! Amazing-I love those! Sunday morning we left early to visit Cliff and Pam in Rome, GA on our way back, particularly since Cliff is the interim worship minister there. We got lost, and then finally found the church.
First Baptist Church of Rome.
Which is not where Cliff works.
We found this out after walking in and seeing about ten people, then asking the minister. It's West Rome Baptist. After getting there 25 minutes late, we did manage to see Cliff lead several songs. He did do a good job from what we could see-and I have to say, it was kind of crazy to see him up there in front of hundreds and hundreds of people. I was super disappointed that we missed the first song since it's one of my favorites (hallelujah-your love is amazing-I don't know the real title), but luckily, they sang it again at the end! It was a massive church, but we did find them (Cliff and Pam) at the end. And, Leni went to nursery! Aren't I brave? She had a good time until the end when other parents beat us there to get their kids. We had a pager for her, though. Not exactly like Christ Chapel...:) We picked up lunch and had a nice two hours or so visiting. It's been a pretty busy week since then, so we are glad that this weekend looks pretty quiet! Okay, pictures from last weekend.
At the park-Leni and Chris playing. At breakfast Saturday morning-I forgot to mention this-it was a really neat place that we walked to. Again, so jealous that they have such great food so close! Leni looked funny leaning back in her chair!

At one of the toy stores Saturday

She loved this puppet, and Deedee and David surprised us by going back and getting it! Super cute. She loves puppets, and understands how they work and likes to put her own hand in.
The cutest puppy at the park. Leni was super into puppies this week. She's started doing this thing where she rubs her fingers together to say "come here". This also applied to ice cream and biscuits and puppies and many, many other things this weekend. In fact, when she got a piece of biscuit, she laid it in her lap and clapped for it before eating it. She's pretty much the cutest thing ever.
Sliding with Deedee and David
How Chris spent part of his time at the park. I must say, Tappans, Elena might have lots of my side's physical characteristics, but she's all Tappan as far as her fearless-ness, need-to-climb-on-everything. I quit worrying about it and bought bandaids with neosporin already built in.

Night time bottle with Deedee. I don't think I've mentioned before, but we bought new bottles after all kinds of info came out about plastics in baby bottles, pacis, sippy cups, and teething rings. I am always hesitant about these things, because everything you read about will cause cancer, ADD, and autism. But, California has already banned these plastics, Whole Foods won't carry them and only carries these bottles that we use, my doctor's office had articles about it on the bulletin boards in every patient room, and even my mom has heard about it now. I pass the info on to everyone I know having babies, but if you read this and want the info, email me at aksprinkle@gmail.com.

Elena's favorite toys are always not-toys. For instance, satsuma oranges that were super juicy by the end of our trip...
We went Saturday afternoon to visit David's mom and Grandma, and Elena liked the dog's beds. She crawled in there completely on her own.
Elena and David playing with the bigger dogs
This is Saturday after shopping-I think it looks posed, almost. Mostly, she was tired.

Visiting Cliff and Pam-she used their rug as her "snack mat".

Reading with Uncle Cliff.
And Aunt Pam-whoever will hold a book and let her look, she'll sit forever!
She liked Aunt Pam's shoes and kept trying to put them on and walk. Probably because Pam has tiny feet and they looked like they might fit!
She LOVED this papasan chair-she rolled all over it. And, these stuffed puppies that she "called" numerous times, then just drug around behind her.

She has become ridiculously sweet with her babies. This is while we were unpacking Sunday night, and she entertained herself completely by "changing" the babies. She got out her diaper changing pad and laid it on the floor, got a baby doll, laid it down, wiped it with wipes from her container, and got really frustrated when she couldn't get the diaper on it, so brought it to me for help. I've since gotten her some tiny diapers for her dolls that work much better. So sweet!

That's all for this week! We had a great trip, but it's nice to be home too. We've already had the girl scout initiation night, so I'll post pictures of that next week.

Happy Easter!

2008-03-23T19:03:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter! trying to decide if mama is about to take delicious chocolate bunny away...
Starting with this morning (I promise, she does not eat chocolate almost ever, it's just every time she does, it's a huge mess and I take pictures!) Supposed to get up at 6:45, at 7:45 actually get up so Chris can be at worship rehearsal at 8 (or, as it ended up, 8:25) and needed time to get ready, shower, and get lunch ready for every one to be there by 1 when we get back from church. Kind of busy, so I let her eat 3 mini m and ms to keep her in her high chair. This is the result. 3. I don't know if she actually got any in her mouth.
After church we had lunch at our house with an Easter egg hunt and egg dying, and Easter gifts. Cami picked out her dress-she thinks it is "sassy". We agree! Here, she's showing off her Easter gifts from Mimi and Poppy.

I found these games for $4 at Target this week, so even though Leni can't play any of them yet, she and Cami both got Hi Ho Cherry-O, Chutes and Ladders, Memory, and Candyland.
Being Hannah Montana in the backyard
Playing with Uncle Nathan
Leni was asleep when people first got there, and through lunch. This is her Easter dress-Susan made it! It is so utterly adorable on her.

Leni and Mimi

I thought this was a sweet expression. This kid is so sweet-it's just almost unbelievable. We've just realized in the last few days that even though she's not talking much, she understands so much, so we've started asking specific things and she can do it. Like "can you pick up your paci?" or "hand mama the book please". She is so amazing every day.
The boys hid Easter eggs in the yard and both girls had a great time. We practiced finding eggs at Baby bookworms this week.

Cami and Leni were so sweet-they kept putting their eggs in each others baskets.

Dessert-it just looked too pretty to not include a picture of. Dad's mom always made coconut cake shaped like a bunny. I didn't do it this year, but it just doesn't seem like Easter without coconut cake. This one had coconut and lemon curd, and I made the bird nests because I happened to have kataifi (or konafa) which is shredded phyllo in the freezer. Doesn't everyone? I love Middle Eastern markets way too much. Anyway, they turned out super cute.
We took a few "family" shots in the yard. Not of the whole group-no one stayed around long enough to get one! Mimi, Poppy, and girls.
Erica and Cami-Cami was in a wiggle worm mood, but it's good of Erica!
Our crew

Avery and Nathan.

Dying Easter eggs-Cami didn't think she'd ever done that before.

Elena liked banging them together and trying to throw them. Luckily, they were boiled...
Cami showing off her eggs

That's the end of the Easter pics. Here's some more from this week.

Yesterday, I helped Fredda paint her room. All four of her walls had been different colors, so we were painting three light pink and one dark pink. It ended up that they had all been painted with latex the first time except one, and we didn't realize it. When we painted over it, the paint peeled off in sheets. Yikes. It was a huge mess. Anyway, Ave and Nate came to watch Leni for a couple of hours so Chris could help me, and they took some really sweet pics of Elena. I've put those below. And, in other news (but no pictures-we'll work on it!) I got my nose pierced. Back to the pics!

She LOVES to smell flowers lately. We were at Stanley's greenhouse the other day, and she found a gardenia and fell in love with it. So precious.

Trying to climb the fence with Uncle Nathan.

Sitting with Aunt Avery. Apparently, a few minutes after this the swing fell out of the ceiling and both Avery and Leni were a little teary.

A few from our trip to the park the other day. We went to Cherokee park, which isn't technically a dog park but might as well be. Elena was thoroughly enchanted with all the dogs and tried to get them to come to her or chase them down. She does this cute thing where she squats and waves for them, but it didn't come through on camera.
Elena and daddy.
Eating lunch at Panera with Aunt Avery Wednesday in the dress I made her.
And, to leave you with a sweet one.

Hope your Easter was as wonderful as ours!

14 months

2008-03-18T10:59:00.000-07:00

We have had a pretty nice few days this week. Here's Chris and Leni enjoying the new swing from Chris's dad. Mom, Avery, and Nathan came over last night for dinner, and mom came over early to watch Elena. She took a nap, and Mom woke her up. She was pretty snuggly while waking up.
Being silly with AVery and Nathan and all their green. Nathan's shirt says "Green shirts are for pimps".
Lots of zerberting going on last night.
This morning, on the way to get a shot for chicken pox because we thought she was exposed. She wasn't (though she was exposed to 5ths disease, so she may get that, so pray that she doesn't). Anytime I ask if she wants to go on a trip, she heads straight for the door. She is her mother's child.
Friday night we went out with my old college group to Big Ed's, then had a "shower" for LeeAnn and Willie, who expect a baby boy in the next several weeks. Joey tried on the nursing apron I brought.

LeeAnn (and baby) checking out Becca's diaper cake, which was super neat.
Leni feeding Jack snacks.
Playing with daddy
My landscaping-I told Chris that I am always either pregnant or nursing and, therefore, primary baby-watcher, and since I am currently neither, I was doing all the landscaping myself. I did two front flower beds, two garden beds, and two back flower beds, plus planted blueberry bushes.
She's gotten really into smelling flowers.

The group at Big Ed's-I got there early to be seated and didn't get seated for an hour. It was delicious, though.
Chad decorating for the shower.
Leni at the shower. This is a new dress I made her-I need to get a close up. It was going to be her Easter dress, but then Susan made one that is just too perfect!

That's it for now! Easter pictures next!

almost 14 months

2008-03-11T10:30:00.000-07:00

I did finally get blogger to cooperate and let me upload pictures, so here they are! It's been nice and quiet here, and we just aren't taking as many as we were. I guess we're probably taking a normal amount now...not 100 a week. Little bit is pretty sweet-she just gets funnier as the weeks go by. These aren't in order-for whatever reason, they didn't load in order off the camera.

Playing outside a few days ago-and trying her darndest to sneak into Ms. Polly's yard with the rocks.
Rocking in mama's chair-she loves rocking chairs big and little now.

She loves to feed herself now, and it makes disastrous mess.
She doesn't really like bows once she realizes they're in her hair, but the other day she just kept handing them to me to put in.

Visiting Aunt Avery last Monday when Uncle Nathan was out of town. There are lots of kitties to chase there!
With some of the girls from girl scouts-Jamya, Heaven, and Chrissy.
Heaven is her favorite, and wanted to put this cupcake tattoo on. I did it, and Leni wasn't so sure.
She loves to "read" to herself in the car. I got a video of it the other day.
Last weekend (10 days ago) Nathan's parents came in town and met Elena for the first time. She had a good time at the park near their house.

We had an "emergency" shower for our friends, Dave and Samantha, who are leaving in 11 days for Japan to get their new baby girl, Kaori! We went to a Japanese restaurant for the occasion. It was lots of fun, and we won't be meeting for a few weeks, so a good opportunity to get together before our break.

Leni being VERY unsure about the hibachi fire...
Dave and Samantha
A Magpie cake, which is always amazing...

Saturday it snowed for the first real time, so we took an impromptu trip with Mom, Dad, and Cami to Townsend. It was pretty fun, and Elena liked it for a few minutes until she had a "what are we doing in the cold" look.

Cami making snow angels.

Here's where they start being really out of order. I don't know what the deal is. This is Leni carrying around an eggplant.
At the playground just a couple of days ago.
Back to the day at the playground with the Hawks and Ave and Nate. Doesn't this jacket make her look like a baby gnome?

Back to Townsend.

Poppy throwing snowballs
First time eating snow
Cami also trying the snow
Inside the Visitors Center in Townsend.

That's it for us! Hopefully, we'll have more pictures soon! Worse case-Easter is coming up, so I'm sure we'll have some more by then!

Just so you know...

2008-03-10T11:17:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to load 25 pictures, and blogger isn't cooperating. I'm not a total slacker...

My husband is a rock star

2008-02-29T19:41:00.001-08:00

It's true. Last night he was in a singer-songwriter concert at Hard Rock Cafe in Gatlinburg that was put on by WDVX. There were four nights, and a winner was chosen from each night to compete in the final round, which was also last night. He won the first round, and then of the final four, he came in second. In all, he came in second of 28 people. He won a gift certificate for the first round, and a Hard Rock Fender guitar for the second. I didn't think I'd ever be married to someone who was a Hard Rock Cafe star! I was really proud of him, and he got a lot of nice compliments from judges and participants, and talked to Karen Reynolds, the host of Writers Block, for about an hour, which was great. Rock star=Chris Tappan! Well, something like it, anyway!

For those who don't know, he also came in second in a New City singer-songwriter contest last February. Pretty good since he has competed against people who are working to make music their career!

Our week: post 3 for the day

2008-02-29T19:19:00.000-08:00

First I want to say congrats to our friends Dave and Samantha in our small group! They've been in the process of adopting from Japan and just received word that their baby girl was born Feb. 7 (I think) and they can go get her right after Easter! Lots of answered prayers there!

Last weekend after John and Susan's visit, we went to Avery and Nathan's house with their friends Travis and Michelle. Michelle made a really great, super easy dessert that I've already copied twice! Leni had fun playing with everyone, and their dog Sophie. Well, she was a little scared of Sophie, but she was super interested in her!

Being silly with daddy!
Susan suggested this-a tablecloth so she knows where to eat a snack. It totally worked-she walks in and plops down on it and waits for a snack, and it took one day to get it. Lots less cheerios all over the floor.
These are a little out of order. Chris took this the other day and said "like mother like daughter"-I was unloading groceries with her "help", and she disappeared. He found her in her room with a bag of chocolate chips, trying mightily to get into them. Oh man, at least she has good taste-60% cocoa Ghiradelli...
She's so big! 20 pounds=turned forward in her carseat!
Not that happy about her gloves...