whitney is moving, tucker is eating

The biggest excitement in this house is how much Whitney is moving. This week she figured out how to pull herself from sit to stand. In the bathtub of all places. Apparently the tub side is the perfect height for her. She also is able to do the same feat in the church pew, so she practiced that plenty today, instead of taking a nap. She has two bottom teeth now, also. She did something else amazing. She sat still and watched me cut her toenails and fingernails. I had tried to catch her sleeping to do it, but they were getting so long, that I tried doing it right before nap. She sat perfectly still while I cut them, as if she knew she needed her nails done. What baby does that? A girl baby, apparently. She also really likes to talk. She is on syllables like ma-ma, ba-ba, da-da and spitting. Tucker thinks spitting is so funny. He stops eating to peer around his highchair side to watch her and laugh.

Tucker is working hard on eating. He has his 6 teeth and inhales his food. Someone asked me this week what they like to eat. I didn't know about Tucker. He inhales it all. Whitney definitely has a preference for fruits. She does a "yummy" sound when she eats them. But he doesn't differentiate. He needs to practice eating crackers, though. He inhales them, too. It didn't work in his favor one day. He ended up gagging himself by having a whole cracker in his mouth that he wouldn't give it up and lost half of his food from the meal. Whatever.

Some of the pictures this week I will try to describe to you. Tucker is practicing his beauty contest wave. It cracks me up!! He has been very fascinated with his hands. He has gone to reach for a toy and stops short to watch his hand move. Pronate, supinate, pronate, supinate, pronate, supinate. In other words "Wow! The back of my hand, the front of my hand, the back of my hand, the front of my hand. that is so cool!!" Another fun picture is of Whitney giving Sammy a hug. It looks like Sammy has his head on her lap. There is a picture of Whitney in her "fort". She loves to crawl over things right now. She loves to crawl in the bottom part of the exersaucer and spends a lot of time there hitting toys on the plastic floor and grabbing Tucker's feet. Tucker has a lot of pictures of him smiling. He is pretty happy and has figured out how to smile on cue to other people and the camera. He and Whitney are still sharing a lot of "jokes" this week. They laugh at each other a lot. I think he is a lot happier because he hasn't been cutting teeth this week, just eating, and I was able to get them on a fairly regular schedule for sleeping. Life is pretty fun right now. Another favorite picture of mine is when Whitney crawled in Rocky's bed. He didn't like that as much.

We've been spending time enjoying each other's company this week. Yesterday morning and this afternoon we walked around as a family, including the dogs. Jim went looking for shoes yesterday and today we watched the cruise ships leave the Sound. We've had some people over for dinner this week and I met another mom at the park, so socializing has helped me feel less alone in this crazy big city. In general we are enjoying life together before real life really hits again with church callings and being in a place that we will be staying in for awhile, instead of living more like a long term vacation.

This week the history channel had a review of main events surrounding 9-11-01. At the time, 9-11 was a foreign event for me. I was serving a mission in Argentina at the time, and the rule for missionaries is to not watch TV in order to focus on serving others and teaching about Jesus Christ and His gospel. I was in a hardware store in Argentina buying nails for an object lesson with the scriptures when I heard over the radio "Los estados unidos..... los estados unidos....(the US...the US)". I thought to myself, "oh great. The US did something else with their economic policy that is going to tick everyone off again." I didn't understand the rest of the radio because I had only been in the country for 5 months and didn't understand radio spanish yet. We went to a copy shop after that for some handouts and the guy behind the counter stared at us like we were crazy and just pointed to the screen (all shops have a TV in them for the most part). My companion and I turned around in reaction and I saw the image of the twin towers burning, smoke coming out of both of them and a helicopter flying around. I remembered that I wasn't supposed to be watching TV and turned away. That is the only live image I saw.

As the day went on, many strangers in the street stopped to ask us if our families were ok. This was quite a day for us. Most the time people on the street avoid talking to missionaries. We heard bits and pieces of what was happening through the people on the street and the ward members. I remember wondering if I was going to finish my mission if the US was at war. Our mission president told us that night through the telephone tree, the basics of what happened that day, and that we would continue working as usual the next day. I was overwhelmed with the kindness of the Argentines and the compassion they had for a foreign event. It made me wonder at myself of how often I even pay attention to wars or calamaties in other nations, let alone stop to talk to someone from that country to see how they are feeling about it.

Not all the experiences were completely positive at first. One guy that we stopped to talk to about the gospel asked us how we could even believe in God after what had happened in our country the day before. Then he told us to go home so that we could actually do some good where good was needed, not in Argentina because they were doing just fine. He walked off before we could respond to him. His accusations of us being in the wrong place at the wrong time made me think. If I could have responded back, I would have told him that I was doing exactly what needed to be done to help a situation like that. Teaching people about Christ and His atonement that allows us to be forgiven, so in turn we can be forgiving of others because we have felt what it is like to be forgiven.

Long story short, I didn't know what was happening minute by minute like everyone else that was in the US did, so I didn't have the anxiety of the day etched in me. I found out the basic details over time and heard more details when I got back, but I already knew the end results. This week when I watched the history channel special, I got a small sense of what all of you must have felt, not knowing what was coming next. I finally saw parts of the live footage. It stressed me out for the two hours the special was on, and I even stayed up an extra hour to watch the whole thing. After that, I was all worked up and couldn't sleep until midnight. (And all you moms know how precious your sleep is.) I can't even imagine what it was like for everyone else that day.

Which brings me to what our city did this weekend. They sponsored a Day of Service at a park and planted trees, as well as clean up the park (things have to be cut back from growing here, as opposed to coaxing plants to grow like in Utah) a bit in commemoration of 9-11. I guess the terrorists goals were not all completely met. Now it is a day that brings us together as a nation, instead of being divided, as long as continue to participate in things like this. Anyway. It's getting late.

Until next week....

really, no pics

I had a moment this week when I went to take a video of the babies and the camera wouldn't turn on. The battery went dead and I had forgotten to save out the battery charger for the camera. It's packed somewhere in storage. But then I remembered that they wouldn't pack cameras, so I was forced to take the other camera with us. Good thing. I thought I wasn't going to have any pictures of the babies for a whole month! Heaven forbid! I hear with the next kid, we won't even take pictures of our baby (hopefully it is just one next time) for months on end. And Jim takes pictures of the babies on his phone, we just can't figure out how to get those pictures off the phone. Either way, we will have pictures of the babies during 8 months old.

This week Whitney got her first tooth!! Finally! Self defense in case Tucker starts biting. He hasn't yet, although I think he accidently bit his thumb. The bib must have slipped out of place during naptime. He woke up one day with a boo-boo the size of a tooth on his thumb. I think Whitney's self defense so far is being able to move more than Tucker. That was what I was trying to get video of. I sat them on the bathroom floor (since that is the biggest non-carpheted surface) and watched them play. Whitney loves hard floors. She loves to bang on them. Apparently they make cool noises. This time she was chasing a tupperware container around the bathroom. As soon as she would touch the container, it would slide across the floor about 6 inches and she would have to military crawl to get it. The most frustrating part for her was when it would slid behind the toilet to the other side of the toilet and she couldn't crawl behind the toilet to get it. She would scream instead. I put Tucker on his stomach to see if it was easier for him to scoot himself around. All he did was stay in the same place and watch Whitney.

It's interesting to me that, even though Tucker has 6 teeth, Whitney has figured out how to eat a cracker much better. At least with less choking. Maybe Tucker thinks his way is better, I don't know. Whitney bites off little pieces and gums them up, while Tucker stuffs as much as the cracker in as will fit. If the cracker falls into his bib, he cries for another one. Whitney has figured out that the cracker pieces fall into her bib. When she runs out of cracker, she reaches in her bib to get more. A lady we met in the store that also has twins was talking to us about how different her two twin boys are. She says the smaller one has figured out how to move sooner. It's fun to watch our babies learn different things at different times due to their personality.

We've been hanging out at a park this week that overlooks the sound. The view is great and the babies love to play with leaves, grass, and just generally look around. Every time I put Whitney in the front of the stroller I get comments about how cute the babies are. When I put Tucker in the front, lots of people smile. I think he grins at everyone that walks by. I had a lady say that I had a "beautiful child" when Tucker was in front. It is so fun when other people think your kids are cute because we sure think they are cute and fun.

Whitney is having lots of fun holding herself up to stand. She laughs hysterically and bangs on the coffee table when we hold her in standing. She will want to cruise soon.

We think the house hunting thing is over. It will be nice to put the babies on a consistent bedtime routine. They haven't really been on a routine for about a month. It will be nice for them to have their bath, last meal and play time around the same time and in the same order. They've been pretty good about the switch up almost every night so far.

This week we were invited over to Jim's co-worker's house for games. It was really fun! I also finished two letters of recommendation and got a bunch of scrapbooking done during baby naptimes this week. We also walked along the waterfront a little bit yesterday when the clouds cleared. It was really strange for me to see salt water that was calm and ended against cement, not a beach, but the waterfront was much cleaner than I thought it would be. It was relaxing and a nice end to the week.

parents are boycotting..

I don't know if my parents really are boycotting the blog, but my mom called me yesterday and talked to me for awhile, even though she called and talked to me on Sunday, too. I don't think they will be reading this for the next month or so since there are no pictures or videos that I can post. My mom tried to figure out all sorts of ways to get pictures to her during these next few weeks. Face it. Life without technology is so sad for us. A few years ago, getting pictures more often than 6 weeks would have been unheard of. Now they "can't wait" 6 weeks. Whatever.

Whitney is getting really good at moving around. Between rolling over and crawling a few steps at at time, she can go anywhere she wants in this apartment. So everything is off the floor. Including the dogs. They are learning quickly. Whitney is very fascinated with their paws and Sammy's long hair. They both immediately move when a baby touches them. Good exercise since we are living in an apartment. Of course, Rocky figured out a way to not exercise. He wedges himself between the couch and the end table, too small of a space for rolling over or scooting forward, so he is mostly out of Whitney's reach. Tucker still cries because he can't move much more than rolling.

He is working on teeth. There are four teeth (three on bottom and one on top) that have fully come in. There are three others that have poked through, but haven't finished coming through. Lots of waking up at night, but on the other hand, he went to bed from 6:30 pm to 6:30 am from all that lost sleep. I couldn't believe it. Also, their schedule is as close as I can get it to an 8 o'clock bedtime, but transferring from a carseat to bed still wakes them up a bit after we get home from house hunting and driving in the car. Tucker's teeth are sharp. He no longer chews on his finger. He puts his finger in his bib and then chews on it. Smart. Good thing there are bibs. All of his clothes would have holes in them without those bibs.

I will also challenge any of you to a game of basketball. Last time I played, I didn't do so well. Making a basket is often beyond my skill set, but now I make a basket while fighting off defense no problem. That's how I feel when I feed the babies. I have to avoid their reaching hands while making a basket with the spoonful of rice cereal into their mouths that are moving targets because they are reaching, grabbing and moving their bodies and heads around to look at the dogs, the high chair, the straps, anything but their food. I'm getting better, so I think my hand-eye-basktet coordination has most likely improved.

We rode the "duckies", these bus/boat things that were built in the second world war. There are tours that take you around Seattle, both land and water, in these things. The ride is an hour and half. We took the babies all ready for bed, on a tour Friday night. It was really fun. Tucker cried when the guy started using the microphone and they got hungry for their last bottle on the ride, but other than that, it was really fun. A lady with twins (who had left them at home) sat in front of us with her older son and helped with hands. We saw the house that Sleepless in Seattle was filmed, the Deadliest Catch boats anchored on Lake Washington, and learned the difference between house boats, house barges, and floating houses. We also saw the first carwash in the nation, which is close to our apartment. The rest of this week was househunting, getting the babies in a routine when there is no routine, taking the dogs for a walk, and enjoying the sun while it lasts. Jim is having fun at work and is spending a lot of time looking at all the house options online before we go out to look at them. It helps a ton.

no pics...

This is going to be a boring blog because we don't have our stuff. Meaning the computer that accepts the camera card directly so I can post pictures. I even know exactly where the camera is, but can't upload Seattle pictures, so expect some boring blogs for 6 weeks.

We made it here alive and well. We are living in an apartment while we figure out what to do with our lives. I will probably never live downtown again, let alone downtown Seattle, so I want to take advantage of it as much as able. Today we walked over to look at the Space Needle. There is a lot more there than just a space needle. Lots of stuff going on and things to look at. Other kids around us were really excited about the rollercoaster they had, but Sammy was less than excited about it when we walked by. A few other destinations we want to go to are Pike's market and go out to eat at the Thai restaurant in our building. The other stuff we will probably do when everyone comes to visit. Like actually go up in the Needle and go to the Children's museum. There is so much to do it's hard to pick!! We're trying to pick things we would do because we live downtown, not necessarily something we would do with other people or non-baby friendly activies.

We drove to Seattle for 3 days, driving no more than 6 hours. That was nice, not driving more than 6 hours. The drive here is pretty dry except for parts of Oregon and about 2 hours out of Seattle. Lots of dry desert to look at with different rock formations under it. The babies did pretty well.

We stopped at Aunt Des's house, where Caitlyn took excellent care of our dogs, better petting and attention in general than they have had in 7 months. Their beagle Roxy was very jealous. Sammy could have stayed there and not come with us the rest of the way. This apartment and hotel living with all these noisy cars scares him so much, he really hasn't been able to use the bathroom in private or getting scared half way through. So far there haven't been any accidents, but I don't know how much longer it can last.

Whitney also learned to crawl a few steps/crawls while we were at Aunt Des's. She had so much energy from sitting in the car that I guess she had plenty to learn how to propel herself forward instead of just rocking on her hands and knees so much. Tucker still likes to sit up or be in the exersaucer instead of crawling, but he is working on 3 more teeth. He's got the top front two and one to the right of his bottom 2 that are coming in. He now has a big boy toothbrush and gets his teeth brushed at bathtime for practice. He's not sure what to think. The babies continue to tell each other jokes. That's what I call the splashing and laughing that happens during bathtime. Tucker splashes really hard, which makes Whitney laugh, which makes Tucker pause in his splashing to laugh. Then the cycle starts all over. It's great fun, but there are no videos of it because all of that requires four hands to prevent drownings in the tub instead of video taping the action.

I'll let you know if we go on any adventures this week, besides the adventures of house hunting with two babies.... Maybe we'll "ride the ducks". It drives down our street.

Call my parents for my number here if you want to call and talk to me (I don't want to post it on the web) and I can't call long distance, but I can receive long distance phone numbers. Until next week...

found camera!!

Tucker and Whitney playing together. With the recycle items, not their toys. That would be boring

Tucker loves pie crusts!

Whitney loves playing

Sammy and Rocky in their typical positions. Rocky doesn't seem to care what is going on around him, just as long as he can relax. Sammy protecting his "herd". Making sure his herd doesn't catch the lazy bug from that lounging dog over there.

Whitney was smiling. Until the camera came out for her to investigate intently.

Eat! The babies were playing on the grass one of those (another one of those) work on the shed nights. Whitney especially likes new things, including Daddy's tools.

Tucker was waving around the wrapping paper tube, but I caught him smiling instead of him waving the thing in the air. Still a cute pictures. Man. Sometimes catching cute pictures is like catching a fish. Lots of stories about how big the fish was, but never any actual testimonials of seeing the real thing except by the person who caught it briefly. Don't mind his inmodest shirt line. This is the onsie that he stretched out months ago before I caught him teething on it.

So.... I blamed Jim for loosing the camera. Not directly, just indirectly. And I'm the one that lost the camera. Typical woman. But here are the baby pics of the week. Enjoy. The next pics should be of Seattle.

can't find camera

This is the shed that Jim built

Whitney and I by the tree I planted in a baby naptime


So. No cute baby pictures, like Whitney holding Daddy's tools while he builds the shed, because we can't find the camera. Awesome. Yesterday Jim had a lot of fun getting rid of stuff and taking things to the dump (like left over construction material) and today we can't find the camera. Hopefully it pops up. So you are stuck with boring pictures. Like of the shed. We think it's cool, but you might not. Jim finished the shed yesterday. It looks GREAT!! The garden is doing amazingly well, too. We've already made some salsa. Good thing we're leaving in 10 days. Jim leaves tonight and will start work in Seattle tomorrow. He is very excited!! Yesterday I finally planted that pine tree in that hole I started digging in May. I didn't realize what planting a tree would involve. I dug a 3 foot diameter by 1.5 feet deep hole yesterday during baby nap time. I didn't realize though, that you have to move all that dirt back. I was racing against the the clock of the end of baby nap time, too. I mowed the lawn and edged it that night. I am woman!! (I was whooped last night!!) Don't worry. I was doing all that while Jim did all the household projects we've been meaning to do but haven't had a deadline to finish until now. He finished them all in one day. And packed. An amazing feat since before he was just focused on trying to finish the shed 2 months sooner than he thought he was going to have to finish it. But some day that tree will block the view of our neighbor's kitchen from our bedroom. I hope no one chops it down. I'll check Google maps in ten years to see. We found renters this week, so hopefully it works out. A little scary, though.

It was a sad day on Friday. Everyone's last day of work was on Friday. Jim's, mine and the nanny's. Today in church the nanny was talking to her mom while Tucker was hollering about having to take a nap. "Hey Mom!! Do you hear that? (she hadn't noticed anything). That's Tucker! Do you think Mandy needs help?" I think it was pretty cute that she is attuned to our babies' cries. Sadness we have to leave them here and not move them to Seattle with us. Their parents said they wanted to keep them. Bummer.

Until Seattle......

Tucker's in the lead again

Whitney eating paper while Daddy and Uncle Ryan build the shed

It is WAY too hot out here!! How is it that they can work in this sun! I'm going diaper only style with this monkey Daddy got me.

Tucker in the bucket
Seriously.....
How do you drive this thing? Watch out world. Whitney's at the wheel.

Babies in a bucket. Mom doesn't want to get a kiddie pool before moving. Weird.

Uncle Scotti's ear is really cool. Give me a piece of that!



We've had a lot of craziness and fun this week. Now we are doing the last things we need to do in Utah. The plans for moving and when change daily, so who knows, but there has been a lot of prep work on the house to get it ready for.... whatever. Tucker's second tooth is almost in and his first tooth is razor sharp. And he just so happens to like paper even more, now that he can shred it. They get better and better at sitting up..... and sleeping at night. They've both slept through the night by my definition 5 out of 7 nights. Good. We can get lots done around the house when they go to bed. Except for that one night Tucker wanted to play at midnight. Jim finally gave up and drove him around. Jim discovered the more bouncing, the better, so he was aiming for potholes. The policeman wasn't so amused, but didn't want to hear another Tucker scream, so he let Jim drive "erratically" around the neighborhood (only going about 20 mph) to hit all the potholes. They've tried oatmeal this week and love it. Whitney likes it better than rice cereal by a long shot.

My mom and Scott went home this week after having a s'mores campfire, kayaking (almost in a thunderstorm), babysitting babies while Mommy went to work, and hiking Mt. Timp (we let Scott and Ryan do that one without babies, just to be nice). There's been a lot of shed building since. I haven't talked to Ryan much due to everyone being tired from being out in the hot sun. I think he's doing ok. We did a retry of the kayaking yesterday with a lot more success. I don't recommend pulling three people on a tub behind a kayak. The tube won, but no one flipped.

There should be a video attached somehow. It's a feeding time with rice cereal. Whitney was eating it through her toes, but of course, when the camera came out, she stopped. Stay tuned for next week...