Merry Christ-mas

Raina's hat and scarf from her babysitter. We thought it was just sooo cute. That hat is something else!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas day and is enjoying this holiday season. Sam and I don't really start feeling Christmasy until after finals, but we did manage to have some fun times - although we accidentally left the camera at home on Christmas Day.

We each got to open one present on Christmas Eve. Raina got a book she didn't care about (although she loves books - little stinker). I got Wii Fit Plus (which we had fun playing for a little while that night) and Sam got a Three Stooges DVD that we had to watch right away. Sam took a video of me playing one of the games on the Wii, but I am not going to post it. I had to flap my arms like a bird to get my character to fly around. I guess it was a little funny to watch.

Sam and I were very excited for Christmas morning so we could watch Raina having fun. She didn't really get it and did not want to open presents, but just wanted to play with her old toys. We finally got her to push her stroller around, but it could not have the baby in it! Raina will feed her baby, which is totally cute, but still won't push the stroller if the baby is in it.

Raina really likes the stroller now: one night, she grabbed it before we could even get her coat off, another time she insisted that she had to push it in the kitchen when we were trying to put groceries away - even trying to get it around the open fridge.

We had a fun time going to my parents' house to visit. We have all been pitching in for the last few holidays (Father's Day, Birthday, Christmas) to give my dad money for a trip to watch the Cactus League Spring Training Baseball in Arizona. It has always been a dream of his, so we were very pumped about it. He didn't show a lot of emotion, so we hope he is as excited as we are - I think he had it figured out though, so he wasn't surprised. We visited my mom's Mom for lunch and then went over to my dad's Parents after. We got to see lots of cousins on both sides, which was really nice. We had dinner at my parent's, then headed home. We were very grateful that the white Christmas we enjoyed came because of a store earlier in the week and not on Christmas - like last year.

Sam got me a webcam, so we have enjoyed talking to a couple of his siblings through Skype. I am glad Sam got to talk to several of his family members for Chirstmas. (Joe spent the holiday shooting, skinning, frying, and eating squirrels. You might be a redneck if ... Just kidding Joe.)

Sam got a little lazy during finals week and decided not to shave. Then he decided to just shave the sides so he would have a gotee. The day after Christmas, this is what he did (he shaved it off before church the next day):

Hello Mr. Sheriff!

Maw Family Christmas Party

The Sunday before Christmas is always the Maw Family Christmas Party. Everyone is there - Grandma, Gramps, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, and now - cousins kids. It used to also include my Grandpa's Sister and all her kids and grandkids! That got a little too big, so a couple years ago we split. We just love being together and eating together. We also love that Santa comes and gives each of the kids a present and little goodie bag.

Thanks to my Mom & Dad who worked so hard to put everything together this year. My Mom made matching dresses for Raina and Harmony, so they wore them to the party. It was difficult to get a good picture though. Raina liked Santa better last year (except she pulled his beard), this year she just looked like she wanted to get away. Santa brough Raina a magna doodle, which she didn't put down until she was asleep in the car. We are very excited to see how entertaining it is during church!

Here are some pictures of Raina with Nicholle's kids and a cute video of Raina:

Catching Up

This is what has happened since our last post:

We have enjoyed illnesses for both Raina and Melinda (twice), as well as end of semester stress for both Sam and Melinda. It was Melinda's worst semester ever, but she isn't going to go into it. We enjoyed a nice Thanksgiving with Melinda's family (grandma, grandpa, cousins, aunts, uncles, etc.) and a fun Christmas party with Melinda's Dad's side of the family. Raina also got her first haircut - as crazy as that is (since she still has hardly any hair!) She was getting this nasty looking mullet, so we cut it off.

Raina's nurse came to visit. Raina is still a little behind. She refuses to use spoons and forks (Becky did you have a talk with her??), won't say Mommy or Daddy, or follow directions. I think most of it is due to stubbornness. She finally is using words, but most of them are animal sounds, so Raina gets a little upset when you don't know what she wants. Raina has recently learned how to scream - she learned it from one of the little girls at the babysitter's. We aren't too happy about it - she screams in the middle of playing for no reason! We also got some sad news: Raina's first nurse died of brain cancer. We really loved Nurse Suzanne.

Raina finally hit 20 pounds - the week she turned 20 months old. Hooray! (which, by the way, is one of Raina's new words - Sam loves trying to get her to say it)

Here is the rest of the last 5? weeks in pictures.

Trying to get Raina to use a spoon with something she loves: chocolate. It worked - sort of.


Raina thought this bowl made an awesome hat. She had a lot of fun playing with it. What she didn't know is that this was her throw-up bowl while she was sick. She didn't have the flu, she throws up all the time when she has a cold - can't handle the gunk going down her throat.


Raina continues to love to read. She decided this was a good place to get cozy. We still had this car seat out for car pool days for Melinda. With the end of the semester, it is going into the closet.


Raina finally has enough hair to put it into two "pig tails" - Sam and I love it. So does Raina! She sees herself in the mirror and says "pretty pretty". Which she also says everything we turn on the Christmas lights or sees my necklace.


We have changed Raina's "push toy" into a riding toy. Raina wasn't playing with the push toy anymore, but she thinks the riding toy is awesome. I told Sam that we should have just given that to her for Christmas - would have been really easy and cheap. Raina is great at going backwards, but doesn't understand the forward concept yet.

Here is a good video of Raina reading. This big Christmas book is one of her favorites. I think we were close enough to get her "talking" - turn up your volume if you can't hear. What is funny about this video is that in the middle of reading, Raina stops and plays with her belly button, then goes back to reading - the book is in the way so you have to watch carefully.

PS: I went from 3rd person to 1st person throughout this post. Deal with it.

Puke, Doorknobs, & Balls

Raina has a great gag reflex. She throws up very easily - so much so that when she has a cold she has a tendency to throw up after eating some things or drinking milk. One day we had three throw up episodes in one hour. It was great fun, hence the picture:

Raina dragged the stepping stool over to the door and started playing with the doorknob. Not good. I don't want her to be able to open the door! Good thing it is locked most of the time. She thinks it is great fun.

For some reason Raina thinks it is hilarious to have a ball hit her in the head:

Raina Meltdowns

Raina, like all children, has her moments. She knows how to get upset and throw a fit. Sometimes, with the fit comes what we call a "meltdown". She actually "melts" into the ground. Usually it is pretty funny. Last week I went Visiting Teaching and Raina got really upset that I left. Sam said she started crying the second I walked out the door, had a "meltdown", and took quite some time to be happy again. I went VT again the next night, so we pulled out the camera and I made sure Raina knew I was leaving. We did this just so we could get the meltdown on camera. We are mean, aren't we. So, here is the video. It is a little disappointing because it was nothing compared to the night before.

Raina's hair was done by her babysitter. We weren't sure if we loved it or not. Here is a picture of it so you can see it better.

The Bee

We call Raina: Raina SueBee. (sometimes) and her first word was Buzz, Buzz (for a bee). So we decided to have her be a Bee for Halloween. We didn't get very good pictures, but here they are:

The Aviary and The Reading Girl

A few weeks ago Raina and I went to the Tracy Aviary with Nicholle and her kids. Raina really didn't care about the birds, but she loves to be outside. We had a nice time. We made sure we saw the "quack, quack's"

Raina with her cousin Malachi. He is 8 months younger than her, but is quickly catching up to her in weight. (Raina, is obviously still taller though)

These birds were some of the prettiest.

Raina has really taken to reading. She loves it. She reads all the time. Her babysitter has even mentioned that Raina seems to like books quite a lot. (By reading, I mean the toddler type of reading - not really reading). Anyway, I can't understand why she likes it so much, no one around here likes to read at all... ;)

18 Months Old! And a bad time at the doctors

Raina reading with Mommy. Cuddling with Daddy. 18 Months Old! Cuddling with Mommy. And - Sam with his bow, because we both think it is cool.

Raina turned 18 months old on the 10th. We can't believe our baby is getting so big. We love our Raina girl so much. It is so fun to watch her learn. She is saying a couple of words now: quack, buzz, up, moo, boo, "ooo, ooo" for the sound a monkey makes. It is so fun to listen to her say things. We are grateful to have a babysitter who works on sounds with her. That is how we got "boo" That is what a ghost says.

This little girl is still only 1-percentile in weight. How can she only be 18 lbs 15 oz?? I was sure she was close to 20! (Remember the new car seat? So, guess we really aren't supposed to do that yet. We still have an entire pound to go...) Anyway, Raina did get taller, she is 31 inches, so up to 29 percentile. Last time was 22 percentile, so it looks like we have a (relatively) tall, skinny girl. She still looks too little to be as old as she is. When I went to the Baby Expo the other day, I got asked if I was going to put Raina into the "diaper derby" - the crawling race. Ummm, No.

The only shot Raina needed at her doctor's visit was her flu shot, so that was great. (Except, the clinics now have the swine flu shot for under two year olds, so we do have to take her in to get that. Boo) However, the doctor decided it was high time to check Raina's anemia and some other stuff because she is still so small. We had to go get blood drawn. It was terrible. They made us hold a hot pack on Raina's arm to help bring the veins up. It didn't work and Raina hated it. They checked both arms (elbow area), then both hands. They finally decided to try on one hand. It didn't work. They had to poke around and then lost the vein. I knew the hand wouldn't work because Raina had IVs all the time when she was born and an IV at the start of the summer. The hand hardly ever worked. So, the ladies called the NICU nurses to help. They decided to try the foot. That wasn't much better, they almost had to pull out, but finally got it to work. (They had to dig around a bit, which was NOT fun). I almost told them to just use the head vein because it is so much easier. It would have been less time and less pain for everyone! It is a good thing they didn't need much blood because once they got in, it was going so slow you could hardly tell anything was happening. Lets just say it wasn't a fun morning for us. I had to hold Raina down for both pokes - it wore both of us out!- she is a strong girl. We were very happy Sam was there with us, but he has such bad hiccups, I had to hold Raina!

We think Raina has started having nightmares. The doctor said she is around the age where that happens. She has been waking up several times during the night just crying and won't calm down until we go in there and hold her for a little while. She usually sleeps through the night. She even woke up all upset with her nap today. Ugh. We are all very tired!

Not a lot of posts lately. I've been working 9 hours a day and them coming home and working for 2 or 3 more hours. Sam and Raina are missing me. I am glad to have Fall break (one extra day off), but more exams to grade next week. Bleh.

Misc. Stuff

I've been so busy with work lately that I haven't had time to even think about taking pictures are remembering anything that has been going on in our little house. So, I thought I would just put in a few pictures of some things from the past couple of weeks:


Raina thinks playing on the computer is great fun. Daddy even let her play with the mouse.

Raina gets a forward facing car seat. (bottom left) Raina thinks the old seat is better. (Top right)

Raina decides chewing on her toe is much more fun than drinking water. (top middle)

Raina da gangsta (wearing Daddy's hat) Raina the cowgirl (wearing Mommy's hat)

One of Raina's favorite things to do while eating: tilt head back and forth. This is while Mommy is gone, so Raina is eating McDonalds (but has apples instead of fries - good job Daddy!)

Raina playing in the basket. (bottom right)


PS: Aunt Cindy got her new Kidney early Saturday morning. She is doing great. Love you Aunt Cindy!!!

Nursery

Big Nursery Girl.

We took Raina to Nursery for the first time today. First, to any parent out there: ask the Nursery leaders when they will let you start bringing your kid, because we found out that we could have brought Raina before. The last two months have been crazy with Raina at church, so that would have been good to know!

We have definitely looked forward to the day, but at the same time we can't believe our baby is this big! I wanted to take Raina in and sit with her the first few weeks. Unfortunately, I teach every week, so Sam took Raina in this morning. There weren't enough girls in Young Women's, so I let Marsha teach (thanks!) and went down to Nursery (happy Mommy). Sam and Raina were playing with toys.

The leaders said that Raina seemed to be doing really well and if we were ready to leave it would be ok. So, Sam and I decided to go back to our classes. Of course, Raina did fine. She is used to playing with other kids at her babysitter's. No crying or anything. I am not sure she noticed we weren't there. When the 1st hour was over, I tried to find Sam for Sunday School. He was in Nursery with Raina. "No, she wasn't crying or anything" he said. Someone just had to go see how his little girl was doing.

A good first day. We didn't think there would be any separation problems like other kids have. We are grateful for that. We enjoyed hearing our lessons for the first time in a long time.
Sacrament Meeting was another story...

And, since you can't see Raina's hair in the first picture. One to prove she has hair. Taken by Daddy. Hair courtesy of Daddy.