Little Miss 1 Year

Bridget turned one and we celebrated with a cake that Mom and Collin made. Little did we know that she was starting to have an ear infection. She wasn't feeling her usual chipper self, but did eat her cake and open gifts.

How we are spending our Saturday Mornings

Family Traditions

Bill and I are at the age where we get to define our own family traditions. The importance of traditions hit us last year as Collin was old enough to communicate what he was looking forward to, questions he had and he was showing off his ability to remember.

Thanksgiving:
We've been going a bit light on this one. I'm not a big fan of glorifying the pilgrims and the destruction of the first nations. We focus on being thankful for the year, the 'harvest' and our family. Collins has been a sous chef since year 1 so we will keep that tradition alive. Perhaps Bridget can sniff spices or drop things into the pot this year. We wait until after dinner to put us Christmas items. We did make gingerbread and a gingerbread house this year before Thanksgiving. I like the timing of that because it keeps the Christmas season from getting too busy. I would say this is the season where we start playing Christmas music and sitting in front of the fire. One could argue this isn't Thanksgiving-specific, but it does happen in the T-day time frame.

Christmas:
This one is an active season. Up this year: Santa Parade with Christmas Caroling and Tree lighting in downtown Auburn. Making paper chains. Putting up Christmas decorations-Collin did get his way and put us the stockings before Thanksgiving this year. Advent wreath lighting. Putting up a nativity and waiting to put out Jesus until Christmas. Last year we did a children's mass, but we didn't like the church. I anticipate the new church to be much more welcoming and fun.

What fun things do you do for the holidays that we are missing out on?

Little Old Man who Lived in a Boot

Collin: Mama, I had a dream. Grandpa Bill and I lived in a boot.
Erin: Neat.
Collin: And there were lots of nice Children and Babies.

A little funny

We couldn't figure out why the bathroom smelled so strongly. Then one morning I walked in to find Collin trying to pee in the garbage can. Evidently it had been going on for a while.

Needless to say we corrected that behavior and the bathroom is smelling better.

Bridget, little Miss 10 months

Little Miss Squishy Princess is a true walker. She can dart in and out of rooms, pivot and pick items up. She now loves to dig in Collin's cupboard so we are always picking up plastic cutlery, plates and cups off the floor.

She still only 6 teeth, but she is biting everything and everyone. Hopefully this month we can stretch out her sleeping into 3-4 hour blocks, Mama is getting tired waking up every 1- 1 1/2!

We can't wait to see what the next few months bring us!

Collin

Our little man is becoming a fantastic story teller. Here he explains how he got his hair. He still wants 4-6 MORE brothers and sisters, but I told him that will not happen.

He is loving school and his schoolmates. Recently they started Sound Sharing where he gets to bring an item in a bag and give 3 clues to his classmates to have them guess the item. It has been fun to select the items, and Collin is an excellent clue creator.

We all got over being sick this last week. I enjoyed Collin was old enough to use the puke bucket efficiently!

Today he started gymnastics again. He is in the older preschoool class and it is more structured. He didn't like it as much as a the toddler class where he and Bill got to run around and try out all the equipment, but we will see how it goes.

Babes is trying to walk

Bridget (a.k.a. Babes) is trying her darndest to walk around. We give her an A for effort.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkSIAUu0SG8

There has been too much going on to jot it all down, but here's a list:
-Roadtrip to Wyoming for Monika and Steve's wedding.
-School starting back up and Collin moved upto the next room with the "big kids"
-Bridget went to her first birthday party for her little boyfriend, Lane
-Garden went crazy and we have tomato plants the size of bushes
-Iwent to Fort Collins for work and Dad held down the house and kids all by himself!
-Thomas the Train rail trip was enjoyed by the whole family

July update

This month has been busy. To start with, Bill is officially Senior Vice President of Equity Strategy. In my humble opinion, it is a well deserved promotion. He is beating the market by 12%. Up next, getting people hired under him.

Bridget had her 6 month appt on Friday. She is sitting at the 80 percentile for height and weight; 90 percentile for head circumference. The doctor asked if we had any 'big heads' in our family. I thought the questions was a tad subjective, but told him that I wasn't aware of any :)

I got promoted to Account Supervisor on Friday. This time around we are getting an all-agency e-mail announcing the promotion, last time it was hush-hush so recognition would be appreciated.

Collin was the magician's helper at school on Friday. He came aways with a giraffe balloon. Collin also road in the fourth of July parade on his bike. Currently he is running circles around the backyard tent making Bridget and Dad laugh.

Tomorrow we are all going for a ride on "Thomas the Train". It will be Bridget's first train ride!

We have been enjoying our CSA box from Tiny's Organics. It is providing an easy opportunity to try new veggies and fruits, and challenges us to eat new things.

On a less personal note the weather has changed and it has been in the 80's and 90's so it qualifies as Summer Sizzle 2010. I love how enthusiastically the news stations create sensational names for the weather conditions. I actually feel hotter when I think I'm in a 'sizzle'.

Progress at home

During May both Michael and Elizabeth met Bridget! And in the few weeks since they left she has been blossoming. She now has two bottom teeth and is doing the army crawl. She is getting hard to keep up with and we need to keep a cleaner floor since everything is going in her mouth.

Collin has adjusted beautifully to Bridget and her new mobility. He is trying to include her his games and play and they both seem to enjoy it. It is nice when they can entertain each other so we can do things like cook dinner, swap out laundry or go to the bathroom.

Gardening Part 2

The apple trees are starting to form fruit. The pear tree and the honeycrip tree haven't had any fruit, but perhaps next year.






And 0ur little garden is starting to bud out. We will be thinning out the beets, turnips, broccoli and carrots--but better to have too much to start with then not enough!

March Madness

There was much excitement in March. To start the month Collin began going to Green River Montessori School. He fit right into his class, which only has 6 full-time students and potty training has been very successful.

Keith and Shelia came out to visit us and meet Baby Bridget!















We celebrated Collin's 3rd birthday and went to the Museum of Flight.

On March 22 I went back to work. I had pretty cool coworkers who decorated my office with posters and a plant-covered-keyboard. Three months from work and it seemed pretty much the same as when I left. It was easier leaving Bridget at daycare than it had been with Collin-probably because I knew what to expect and she took the bottle so I knew she wasn't starving while I was gone.

Grandma Becky came out over her Spring Break to watch Bridget while I got use to being back at work. It was awesome to have an extra set of hands for the morning routine and a hot supper waiting when I got home!



Collin's school also had a fund-raiser at the community college. Although he got stage fright and didn't dance with his classmates, we did bid on a hotel package and won! I didn't know I enjoyed bidding until that night. Watch out, I love to raise my paddle.

The Week in Review

1) I had my 30th birthday party at The Bouncy Place. It was fabulous to jump, climb and scream with glee while racing through the inflatables.

2) Collin turned to me and said "I heard Bridget's voice!" while B was practicing her cooing.

3) Family low tide night walk. We found sea stars, hermit crabs, and other creatures with local naturalists.

4) Curling up with both kids on the couch for a mid-day nap

5) Bill building Collin a sandbox, he was so excited when he woke up for his nap to find 700lbs of sand to play in.

Yount Orchard

Today we started our gardening for the year! We planted 4 barerooted plants. This summer we will be feasting on our own pears, peaches and apples. Up next will be building the 8 foot x 4 foot vegetable beds that will go on the upper terrace.

Before the planting



















The peach tree goes in

Peace

Bridget Grace

Bridget: a strong protective woman; in mythology, goddess of fire, wisdom and poetry

Grace: having God’s favor; in mythology, the Graces were the personification of beauty, charm and grace.

Bridget was due on December 12, but her due date came and passed without occasion. The bi-weekly doctor appointments consisted of the doctor confirming there was no softening of the cervix and certainly no dilation. Being our second child Bill and I were planning the different scenarios of who would take care of Collin while we were at the hospital. Neighbors were called and lined up, a nanny service was purchased and we waited. Luckily for us, my parents showed up on Thursday, December 17 to stay a few days before going on to Hong Kong to visit my sister.

On the morning of December 18 I was having a hard time sleeping because of lower abdominal pain. So at 4am I went to sit on the couch and try to sleep in an upright reclined position sitting tailor style. I thought at the time that Bridget was trying to drop into my pelvis and I thought the tailor position would help, but now I realize I was having contractions. Note to self: your contractions are at the bottom of your abdomen. You never felt contractions higher up on the uterus. The contractions went away by 7am and would come and go periodically throughout the morning. By 2pm my mucus plug came out and the contractions started coming regularly. I tried to get some sleep because I knew that I wouldn’t get any in the hospital after the birth. At first the contractions were every 15 minutes and by 4pm they had progressed to 10 minutes and were too intense to try to sleep through. I need to stand, walk around and breathe through the rush.

We left the house by 6:45 and headed up to Seattle to Swedish Hospital-First Hill. During the car ride the contractions were about 3 minutes apart and too difficult to talk through. We made it through the rain and to the hospital in 30 minutes. The triage nurse anticipated we’d deliver in 2-3 hours, and I thought she was crazy. Bill reminded me to be firm with the nurses if I didn’t want to have an IV and it worked, they let me progress without having the IV. Bill was excellent allowing me to lean on him, reminding me to breathe or offering a new breathing rhythm. The nurse filled the jet-tub and we used the rocker to wait for it to fill up. When the rushes got really strong I said “OOOOOOOOOOOOOOppppppennnn” through the peak of the rushes and tried to focus on my cervix opening for the baby. Sometimes I would tell Bridget that we were excited to meet her. When the tub was ready I was able to labor for about 10 minutes before my water broke. That was intense; it felt like a bullet of water shooting between my legs. The nurse came in with her long plastic gloves that reminded me of what ranchers wear when they are checking on their cows. The water was clear so she said I could stay in the tub if I wanted, but my body started to push and I wanted to anchor myself for the pushing so we got out.

We made it to the bed and I was on my right side holding Bill’s hand and the side of the bed. He remembered to stay really close and helped me through the last contractions. The doctor said I was at 6-7 cm and left the room, but two contractions later my body was pushing so hard that legs involuntarily curled and my top half moving towards my stomach like a sideways sit-up. I knew I wasn’t stopping Bridget from coming out! I was nervous that I wasn’t dilated fully yet and I could feel her moving past the cervix and then retreating a bit with each contraction. Three contractions later she was out and in my arms. Bridget Grace Yount, born December 18 at 9:18pm, 8lbs, 1oz, 19-3/4 inches long.