Just

The Munchkin likes to talk; boy does she like to talk. Sometimes in all her gibberish a little gem pops out. For the last week or so she has added the word just to her vocabulary. I first overheard it when she was playing with her toy tiger. She said to him in a very sweet voice "just don't be a tiger," it's not that easy I thought. Then one day when the babe was crying she said to her in the same sweet voice, "just stop crying," oddly enough, she did stop crying! Maybe it is that easy.

On she went saying just before almost anything and, strangely, most of the time things would go her way. So I decided to give it a go. This morning I pulled out a pair of pre-pregnancy pants. Just make them fit I said to myself.

It didn't work.

I think I need to start with statements like just don't eat that tenth Oreo first.

Hot Temps and Cool Family

We had a heatwave here last week. Not big news to many, but here in Seattle where AC's are scarce, it was brutal. Our upstairs was hovering around 102 on Wednesday and our little window AC unit was gasping its last cool breath.
I was done. Packed up, hit the road and headed to Salem where my fabulous aunt and uncle have AC and hospitality to boot. It was cooler there, in every sense of the word.


Some pics of my sweet relatives with the kiddos at Bite of Salem.

More pics

Nice thing about a 13-minute delivery, they let you leave the same day. Our new family leaving the hospital about 8 hours after she was born. The Munchkin has chosen to do funny faces in pictures lately. More evidence of this below.

She's Here!

Charlotte Ruby Smith
June 9th, 2009
7 lbs. 15 oz.
18 1/2 inches


Barely made it to the hospital and I mean barely:
Went through ER doors at 6:00am she was in my arms at 6:13. But that is another story.

These pics are just from Austins phone, more to come.

Blond Hair And My Dorothy Hamill Haircut

All photos of the Munchkin by Kali Leenstra
http://kalileenstraphoto.com/blog/

The Munchkin turned two in March. Which is crazy, and exciting. My friend Kali came over, hung out in the Munchkins room with me and snapped some "I'm two now" and "here's my Easter dress" shots. She seems to be more opinionated lately, the Munchkin, not my friend Kali, and has no problems telling me what she thinks. Sometimes the advice is good (slamming my laptop shut while I was watching a reality TV show ) and sometimes it is so-so (telling me time after time we should name this baby Wally).

Anywho, we get many comments from people saying that our child looks nothing like us. So here is proof that I was a blond child. Austin was too, but I can't find his baby pictures right now.

Moi, with popsicle of course

Munchkin. Some resemblance, no?

Austin and I are curious to see if Wally will look like the Munchkin. And then I saw this thing where you can put two pictures together to see what your child will look like.
And of course that led me to thinking what would my children look like if I had married some of my old celebrity crushes. That is the natural thought pattern for most of you isn't it?

First up: Jonathan Brandis. I don't want to hear any grief about this one.





Or of course Legolas, not Orlando Bloom, but Legolas.





And then there is Christian Bale, who lost some points with his angry actor rant. But just a few.




Honestly, they all look pretty creepy to me. I'll take the Munchkin any day.


Just about a month left to see what nugget #2 looks like.

It's Official

We are having another girl. Whoohoo! I didn't have a preference, although I couldn't stop laughing when they told us. Austin was hoping for this outcome, so we are excited.


After we picked up the Munchkin from our friends house we told her she was going to have a sister. She said she wanted to dance. So we went and got cupcakes to celebrate while she danced in her carseat.

The Hole in My Chin and the Bun in My Oven

So, I'm pregnant, which I wasn't going to put on here necessarily but there it is. I think that knowledge will help explain the rest of my story.


Thanksgiving was quite interesting this year. We had an impromptu trip to Utah. My nausea had died down so I thought, why not go running? That was not a good thing as right after I finished I encountered some problems that led to a call to my doctor which led to me on semi-bed rest. And no heavy lifting (the Munchkin qualifies as heavy lifting, a gallon of chocolate milk does not).
Caught a bit of a cold.
Then, Thanksgiving morning at my sister-in-laws home. I wake up to start getting some pies ready. Suddenly overwhelmed with ickiness I walk upstairs and wake up a few minutes later in the middle of the bedroom floor. There was some confusion, pain and blood. Long story short, I fainted and in the act of it sent my front teeth through the inside of my lip to the outside of my chin. And the right side of my face is covered in lovely carpet burn.

That is not me. That is a man. But that is kinda what my eye looked like. I'll spare you photos of the lip.

Who faints? (Seriously, has anyone ever fainted before? Do you get hurt when you do? I only know my cousin Julia who fainted after we got in the hot tub in 80+ degree weather then decided hot soup was a good choice for lunch. It was Bean with Bacon...whats not to love?) I did not enjoy fainting. Never done it before, never want to do it again. Anyway, I am in the process of healing now and besides the fact that I can't talk much (which has lead me to my blog) I'm okay. I tell this story not for sympathy or the such because I got plenty of that when it happened, but with all the usual things I am grateful for I had some very specific things that I was thankful for this Thanksgiving that I never thought I'd be thankful for in all my wee life. Why do I feel the need to post them on my blog? That is a question I can't answer. I often wonder why I feel the need to post anything to my blog. But here are the specifics of my thankfulness this year.

I'm so grateful that my two front teeth are still in place and not still in my chin, or on my niece Brenleys floor. If that wasn't clear before, my teeth are where they should be. I'm also grateful that I fell in the middle of the floor and narrowly avoided hitting a bed and chest which would probably have made me lose my two front teeth for sure.

Secondly, the human body is amazing. The first few days this happened I looked like I had been in a boxing ring. Now, I just look like I've been roughed up a little. Crazy how quickly our bodies heal themselves.

Third, grateful for modern medicine. So grateful.

Fourth, I've never been aware before that most of Thanksgiving food is soft and was still somewhat edible to me after "the fall."

And most importantly, little nugget numero 2 seems to be okay. Which is the best thing of all.