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Lillian, Christmas 2007

Jack, Christmas 2005

Family Pictures

We went down to Santa Barbara to have Vivian take our pictures with her fancy new camera.



She did such a good job! One day, I'm going to make her let me pay her.

Lillian and Levi

Lillian really wanted Levi to have that pacifier.

Thanksgiving

We had our first annual baseball game on Thanksgiving day.



As you can see, it was very serious competition.



And then Andrew took it to a whole new level with these socks.


Randomly, a picture of how much Lillian likes the bath. I like how Mia is just like, "what's her deal?"


The tee was courtesy Tyler who built it out of a pizza box, a wrapping paper tube, and a roll of duct tape.




For the record, Amy and Allison are hitting pitched balls, not trying to hit the ball off the tee.

Frequently Asked Questions

As school has gotten busier and things get more hectic, we haven't really talked to anyone, or taken any pictures of anything, or gone anywhere. I thought I'd just give you all an update on our lives so you can see that the reason we're not speaking is really us, not you.

Hows school?

Both Tyler and I go to school full time. I to nursing school, he to Cal Poly where he studies aerospace engineering. I have to spend what works out to 9 hours per week in the hospital where I'm on the step down unit (aka DOU aka telemetry) and I take care of three patients at a time. Plus I have class plus lab. Tyler has his regular classes and he works on his thesis for who knows how many hours per week, and he just got a job working for his professor on something unconnected to his studies. (Probably, it has to do with Matlab though.) We will both finish in the Spring. I'll be done in May and pending my passing the boards, I'll be an RN. Tyler will be done in June with his Masters in Aerospace Engineering.

What do you do with Lillian?

She goes to the totally awesome Cal Poly day care. She does go through phases of liking it and not liking it, but right now, she has no problems. I like her teacher and all the student workers and because you have to either be a student or professor to take your kids there, they're really flexible and understand if you need an extra hour or two to study or work on a group project. She's over the "day care nose" phase, but we'll see when winter hits. She attends everyday for 5 and 1/2 hours. (Originally, when we thought we'd have to pay for some, we scheduled it like this, because at 6 hours, they charge you for a full day.) They are also really good about letting you keep them home if you want, or take them out early if your class was canceled or whatever. I do miss her quite a bit and I miss being a stay-at-home mom, but I really feel that it's important to have at least one degree under my belt (especially with almost 7 years of higher level education) and life is only going to get busier, so better to get it out of the way now.

Where will you go/what will you do after school?

Who knows? We won't stay in San Luis, that's all I do know. We might move someplace fun like Huntington Beach or Colorado Springs, or someplace depressing like Palmdale. Tyler is in the preliminary phase of applying for jobs which involves sending his resume to anyone and everyone and then honing in on jobs he would be qualified for slash be interested in. Once we find out where we're going, I might be able to work a little at a hospital here, and then transfer to a hospital owned by the same company where ever we go. (Depending on if they have those kinds of hospitals where we move). If not, I'm not sure if I'll work or not, but I'm sure enjoying all the local hospitals buying me food and giving me presents.

How's Lillian?

Yesterday and today, not so good (she's cutting new teeth, I hope), but ordinarily, she's fantastic. She's working really hard on expanding her vocabulary with words like 'up' and 'more' and says 'hi' to everyone she sees. She still is following up with the neurologist (who will follow her until she's two), but she's progressing very normally and the MD doesn't think she'll have any problems. Lillian also is very good at following commands, a major developmental milestone. She can throw things in the trash, empty the silverware, give things to various people, go find her dad, sit down, stand up, dance, hop (or try to), point to her eyes and nose (or your eyes and nose), go get her shoes to go on a walk, etc. She's becoming more and more attached to the blue and white polkadotted blanket Allison made for her. If she doesn't see it, it's no big deal, but if it's within range, she must be touching it or carry it around like Linus from the Peanut's Gang. Also, you are not allowed to touch it. She's starting to prefer Tyler to me, which I thought I'd be excited about when it happened, but it hurts my feelings a little. He plays much more physically with her, which she's into right now. It's also fun because she's starting to do things which she knows will make me laugh, like purposefully do something wrong (putting a hat on her feet, or doing the wrong signs to a song) or pretend to do things she knows are not allowed (climbing in the dishwasher) then quickly stopping. She's cute.

Other than that, we're pretty happy and healthy and enjoying this indian summer.

Fun with Photobooth

We bought a new computer, a MacBook Pro, and it has a built in camera and a program called photobooth (which many of you already know). This is how big my brain actually is.


And this is how big Tyler's really is. (Just kidding... we all know he actually is a rocket scientist)



This is how big Lillian's head should be.

What's all this then

My attempt at craftiness. I did it with a glue gun.


We've been having a tough time keeping Lillian happy lately. She wants to help but has little to no hand-eye coordination to do so. This was Tyler's solution to her wanting to help with the dishes.

Random Pregnancy pictures

I'm not pregnant, I'm procrastinating studying for my midterm tomorrow. I never posted these... mostly because I don't think we had a blog when they were taken. Vivian took these when I was about 6 months pregnant.

The Spirit of Halloween

Yesterday, we followed the time-honored tradition of dressing up our child in their halloween costume and taking them to the pumpkin patch to take pictures.


As you can see, Lillian loved every minute of it.



She really did like the goats. The sheep were pretty much just this side of evil... but the goats were great.

Making t-shirts

I've received many requests on how to paint the shirts. Here goes:


The secret is freezer paper. I printed out what I wanted the shirt to say (you could also freehand, if that's your thing) then I taped it to the non-wax side of the paper. Using an x-acto knife, I cut out the letters to make a stencil. Then you iron the freezer paper, wax-side down, to the shirt. Paint with fabric paint or regular craft paint with the fabric paint additive. Let it sit for 12 hours or overnight. Then just peel off the paper.

I have a friend who, with much success, allows her two-year-old son to paint his own shirts... she just makes the stencil in the middle of enough paper to cover the shirt. And it's a good time for all involved.

If you wanted to make a design, you would just layer the paint... like paint the face, let that dry, then paint the mouth and eyes on the face, etc.

Just remember to put the insides of the letters back in when your iron, or you'll have a circle of paint and a line instead of a 'd.'

Odds and ends

This basket was right side up. Lillian flipped it over, got underneath it, and starting crawling around. It was hilarious.


For our enrichment activity, we learned this really easy way to paint shirts. I figure all I have to do to make a complete set (I have a shirt that says "I love u... substitution") is make a shirt for Tyler that says "Math is se^xy, i can prove it."

I guess she just likes boxes

Sleeping baby

I love it when she sleeps.

Huell Howser comes to Templeton

Tyler saw Huell Howser go to this place called Jack Creek Farms. It's only about 30 minutes north of us, so we decided to check it out. Here's me, priming the pump. You weren't supposed to drink the water though, because it had goldfish in it.

Hat and bandanna: mandatory for roping.

We were sort of disappointed by the complete lack of farminess. No cows or chickens. They had some goats, but that was it. I asked Tyler what else Huell did when he was there, and he said, "I don't know, they brought out some onions for him to see." You know Huell, even onions are exciting.

Zucchini Pizza Casserole

Tonight for dinner, we ate something really yummy, so I thought I'd share it with you. Also we needed to use up some produce from our garden, and maybe you have that problem too.

Ingredients:
3 cups grated zucchini
3 eggs, well beaten
1/2 c flour
pinch salt
2 1/2 c shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 c black olives
1/2 c chopped onion
1/2 c chopped Italian pickled peppers (I used marinated artichoke hearts)
Jalapeño pepper rings, if you're in to that sort of thing
1 T fresh oregano or 1 t dried
1 1/2 t fresh basil or 1/2 t dried
3 to 4 tomatoes, thinly sliced
salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:
Generously grease a 13X9 casserole dish. Preheat oven to 450. If your zucchini is soggy after grating, press into colander to remove excess liquid. (mine was not soggy) Put zucchini in a mixing bowl. Add well-beaten eggs, flour, and salt. Mix well and spread in greased pan. Bake at 450 for 8 minutes. Remove pan and reduce oven temp to 350. Cover the zucchini base with cheese. Spread olives, onion, and chopped peppers over cheese. Arrange jalapeño rings (again, I did not use these) over top. Sprinkle with herbs. Arrange tomatoes on top. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake at 350 uncovered for 20-25 minutes.

It says this feeds 4 to 6 people, but Tyler, Lillian, and I finished it off in one sitting. I bet you could use any kind of pizza topping you'd like: pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, whatever you need to use up in your refrigerator.

Enjoy.

We grow weary of naptime

Two weeks ago, Lillian was a stellar napper. I just put her in her crib, gave her a pacifier, made sure she had a spare, and walked away. No tears. No complaint. She would just lay down and go to sleep. Then I started back at school and Lillian went to day care. Miss Janelle says that she has no problems falling asleep during the day. So, yesterday it was getting time to take a nap, Lillian was making the droopy eyes and rubbing her face, so I put her in her crib (she started to cry), gave her a pacifier (she started to scream), made sure she had a spare (she stood up all red faced and angry and threw both pacifiers across the room in protest), and left the room (which equaled the end of the world). After much trial and error and about three hours, Lillian did take a nap yesterday.

Today, I thought I'd be smart and try to recreate the day care setting: there's always soft music playing in the background. So I made a playlist of sleepytime music and put it on the iPod with the portable speakers. She screamed, she cried. I wasn't going to get her up and drag it out like yesterday, so I was going to Ferber it. After 10 minutes, I sent Tyler in. She stopped crying, but Tyler never came out. The above picture is what I found when I peaked in to investigate.

A La Bam Bam

I had to pin her down to get her to hold still... but I think the results were well worth it.