Throwing the Ball

Here is a video from last weekend when the weather was warm and wonderful.  The sound is muted because I filmed this from our dining room window.

We are hoping that Alma's new throwing skills will start a wonderful partnership with Simon.

Finally, a Playground

After a long search, Alma and I finally found a playground within walking distance of our house.  We couldn't resist playing on it as soon as we found it.  Alma, ever the brave kiddo, slid down the big twisty slide by herself.  (Look, another self-proclaimed brag!) 

It was cute to see the excitement, fear and joy that occurred all at the same time as she went down the slide.  Here she is after going down a bunch of times.  You can see that she still isn't quite sure how she feels about the ride.

Sign Language

Words Alma currently can sign:
all done, baby, ball, bath, bear, bed/sleep, bird, book, bunny, car, cat, duck, dance, dog, doll, eat, elephant, fan, fish, girl, hat, hot, light, lion, milk, monkey, more , music, please, phone, rain, snow, spider, sit,
tree, water, wind, what

I could say that I'm keeping this list to keep track, but I realize that I also have to admit that by posting it here it is a total brag. I'm going to be okay with that because this is appropriately labeled "awesome"!

Hawk Mountain

 Today Alma and I ventured to the Hawk Mountain Bird Sanctuary for a hike.  What a great place!  While we enjoyed a snack of pretzels, Alma enjoyed watching birds at the bird feeders outside the visitor center.

 After a mile of snowy, icy and somewhat slippery hiking, we made it to a great lookout where we snapped this picture.  A little windy so Alma hid behind my back.  It's so funny to hike with her because if I pause to rest or navigate the route she starts kicking her legs like I'm a horse who needs to "giddy up!"

It is sad to say but even though the hike was wonderful, the best part of the day might have been the all-you-can-eat pizza place we found on the way home.  I'm still stuffed.  And Alma loved dancing to the music from the video games from the arcade. 

Work

As an update to my stay-at-home and work status, I am now officially working for the University of Pennsylvania's business school, Wharton.  Fancy pants stuff, if I do say so myself.  I'm still working for Penn's National Resource Centers and just adding on Wharton since the roles are similar.  I think my official title is Evaluation Coordinator, which means that I prod my bosses to do evaluation work so that twice a year I can write huge narratives on how great their work is.  And when I say bosses, I mean the seven (!) people I report to about my projects.  Wish me luck as I toss another ball into the air and try to keep juggling!

Happy Valentine's Day

As our camera's battery died right before our big Valentine's Celebration last weekend, I only have a few photos to hint at the awesomeness that included good friends, tons of cute babies (and one soon-to-be delivered-by-the-stork), sweet foods and a game which often ended with Joshua faceplanting onto our living room carpet.  Who could ask for more!?!

Video

We cannot stop watching this video and daydreaming about how we are going to make something similar with Alma.

Bathtime

On the Subject of Blogging

I've been thinking about this blog and how it fits into the world recently -- heck, since this blog started -- but especially more recently as every event I seem to attend includes the following interaction:

Person I barely know: So, I hate to admit it, but I've been reading your blog and its so wonderful to see pictures of Alma growing up.
Me: Great, I'm glad you enjoy it!
Person I barely know: I always feel bad reading it and feel like I should comment or maybe stop reading it.
Me: Don't feel any pressure to do any such thing.  I write it and put it out there publicly without any strings attached.  In fact, I'm kind of happy that people don't feel that they have to comment on it.  The things I post aren't very discussion-inducing.  They are just happy snippets from our lives. 
Person I barely know: Oh, well I'm happy that I'm looking at it so that you aren't doing it in vain.
Me: I mostly do it from my parents and Joshua's family to keep everyone informed since we are scattered across the country.  If anyone else wants to read it, they are welcome to do so.  Actually, just for sheer curiosity, I use a counter which lets me know that I have about 50 readers a day.  Before I locked it temporarily over the summer, it was over 150 a day.  Not that I care beyond bragging rights.  As long as the grandmothers are reading, I'm more than pleased.
Person I barely know: (surprised face at the number of readers per day)

I just want to say publicly that I'm happy you are here reading!  If you feel like commenting, feel free.  Or comment by email.  Or comment in person by admitting that you know what's going on in my life.  It isn't shameful.  Heck, in Philadelphia I went up to two complete strangers on the subway and admitted that I'd been reading their blogs for a long time and thanked them for all the insight on the city because it made our move there easier.  And I think that my Seattle soccer team was made closer by the fact that most of us had blogs and so when we would see each other, we could skip the small talk and instead get into the awesomeness of photos they posted or ideas they had.  It was great!

Or on the flip side, just keep reading quietly and try to change the subject when you know too much.  That is also perfectly okay as well.  Really!

The other part of this discussion is content.  I have very little beyond Alma, Joshua, Simon, Shanti and the occasional friends.  Sometimes I feel that this needs to change.  At times, I feel that I should be offering suggestions on baby gear, thoughts on motherhood, interesting recipes, a more honest critique on my life ... but then I remember my target audience and, honestly, how I don't really care to share my ideas on these other topics, and I go back to just posting cute pictures of Alma.  It may be a little blowing sunshine up your arse, but I like it that way.  I know I don't read the dour blogs (they have their place, but not in my world), so I don't want to put that energy out there.  I love this blog because it serves as a great journal and a record of the fun events and memories of my family. 

Lastly, I have to admit to feelings of shame for my writing style on this blog.  As Joshua will attest, I take for-EVER to write most things because I want my words to have a certain tone, vocabulary and meaning.  However this blog ends up becoming a retreat to awesome! and fun! and other mundane vocabulary with more exclamation points that I would usually be caught using.  In "admitting" this I'm revealing my soft underbelly of self consciousness that wants people to view me as clever and someone to be taken seriously.  The illusion I'm going for is most certainly popped by this blog.  Not the worst, just something to note.  I figure there are plenty of great writers out there so I don't need to fill that role.

In slightly related news, the best thing I saw today was an article that admits that they love reading Mormon Mommy Blogs!  http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2011/01/15/feminist_obsessed_with_mormon_blogs

"... the basic messages expressed in these blogs -- family is wonderful, life is meant to be enjoyed, celebrate the small things -- are lovely."

I know I love them!  Luckily, I'm best friends with someone who is a part of the Church of Latter Day Saints and was good friends with a bunch of LDS kids in high school.  All of these folks (or their wives) seem to blog and I couldn't be happier reading these types of blogs.

Best Day Ever

Alma is always trying to feed the dog.  She spends as much time as I will let her following him around the house shoving the dog bowl in his face.  Yesterday, finally, he let her feed him his entire breakfast.  She was beyond happy.  You can hear her saying "mmm" like when we are trying to get her to eat something.

Funny Photos

Alma falling asleep after a heavy lunch of pancakes and raisins.  She started crying mid-meal because she wanted to continue eating but was too tired to chew.  In this photo, she is zoned out but still doing her sign for "water".

 Alma has been mimicing the dog more than I would like to admit ... especially when it comes to eating without her hands.  Here they are cleaning the flour off of her table after we baked some Valentine sugar cookies together.

 Alma's new hobbie is hiding things.  Important things seem to find their way into my boots or the trash can or some obscure corner in the attic behind some heavy boxes.  Since I'm always losing stuff around the house without her help it just makes me laugh.

Tiny Squishy

One of the funniest things I realized the other day was how small Alma is. I noticed some random moment as Joshua and Alma were walking though the dining room while I sat on the couch in the living room. Looking across the space, I was shocked to see how tiny she is compared to Joshua, the room, the dog ... she is just this little being. In my eyes and in my arms, she is everything. I'm usually so close to her -- either physically or simply engrossed in everything she does -- that I don't often take the chance to notice what a tiny little being I have with me all day. If I were an outsider to my own life, I would coo with envy. 
I love these all the headshots I take of her because I know that they will help me to remember the details of her face at each stage of development and all of the great facial expressions she makes. But recently I've also started snapping photos during our everyday events that show what an little whimsical being she is among the daily chaos of our lives. Here are my first two submissions to this photo pool:

At City Hall after a CUNA meeting

At Target with a giant ball she carried the entire time we were in the store, much to the delight of fellow shoppers

Changing the Language

Joshua pointed out that our blog's current tagline is a bit dismissive of my full time job. 

Joshua works as a faith-based community organizer while Laura is staying at home with Alma the baby, Shanti the cat and Simon the dog. They are currently living in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania.

So we are changing it to something that recognizes my work.  I am so blessed to have such a thoughtful husband who is constantly validating and encouraging me to be bold and not give into the folks who, as one neighbor did, after talking about what Joshua does for a living, ask me how I spend my days by saying, "you stay at home and rest with the baby, right?" 

Rest?!

14 Months

Updates from the month:

• This month has been dominated by snow and ice.  Luckily with a yard, we are able to get out of the house every day and play in the snow.  With the hand-me-down sled we recently got from my parents, I've been pulling her back and forth for the length of the yard.  Her rigid smile is part panic, part thrill.  I love it.  So happy that she is up for some cold weather. 
• At times, she will hold her hands together behind her back as she walks.  She especially likes to do this in public places where she feels comfortable and wants to go her own direction (i.e. the library and Lowes)
• She loves being with both Joshua and me at the same time.  I cannot blame her; we have a great time as a family.
• She has 14 teeth, with 2 more on the way.

• Alma wants to tickle everyone and everything (cat, stairs, mail, etc). The accompanying sounds are nearly as cute.
• This month she is back to echoing us. Whereas before she mainly mimicked our tone, she is getting the sounds much closer these days.
• Everything is still a hat.
• While she warms up to women quickly, there are times when she is very shy around men. Even scared of them if they come on too strong. She hides her face against my chest while peeking out to see what is happening.
• She loves to eat snow.  Let me clarify: Snow that I give her so that she can avoid Simon's snow (if ya know what I'm sayin').  She will hold it, pace back and forth along the patio and eat it ... until I notice that her hands look too cold and I stick gloves on them.
• Gloves are the bane of her existence.   

• We are officially at one 1.5-2 hour nap a day. While I miss the second afternoon nap (and that luxurious third nap that used to be just as consistent), she isn't getting as moody during the late afternoon. I can deal.
• I love how she takes care of me by feeding me scraps of food, hugging me and patting my back, bringing me dolls to hug, making her dolls dance to make me laugh, etc. 
• She has started doing the little kid dance -- half stomping feet, half swaying. She wasn't like my brother's children who were really into music from very young ages but she is finally getting a feeling for it and really seems to enjoy a good beat.
• She loves to look at pictures of people.  Her baby faces book is still a big hit as is junk mail that includes faces of people.  This 69News mailing was lovingly carried around all day so that she could repeatedly point to each of their faces. 

Home Schooling

Alma seems to be at the age now where she wants more than simply to be entertained.  She wants to be a part of every process and to learn how things are done.  The shift from watching to doing is exciting, but also means more work on my part as her daytime caregiver.  To put my head and daily schedule in the right place, I've started thinking about treating our days together as school days.  This both provides some structure, but also makes me intentional about the lessons we are doing together.  So far, our schedule consists of reading (before breakfast), kitchen time (after breakfast), coloring (after lunch) and crafting/building (when we need a change of activities at any point in the day).  I find that when we don't have an activity, she resorts to hugging my legs, crying and/or asking me to nurse her.  I call those our zombie times. 

My favorite is kitchen time, when Alma helps me bake something simple like scones or a boxed cake.  With assistance, she can stir, watches the items cook in the oven and taste-tests most of the ingredients.  This kitchen time also has chores like emptying the dishwasher -- she puts the silverware into a large mixing bowl -- drying the dishes and sorting the recycling.  When there is a lull in the baby-inclusive action, she works on ladling pinto beans from one bowl to another.  She is far from independent or accomplished at any of these tasks, but it's fun to watch her experiment with the process.  Plus, I'm not afraid of a mess so the end results are often comical. 

Here she is using a whisk to mash the batter into submission for Grandpa's birthday cake. 

Building has mostly been putting together Ikea furniture and random shelves that we still have not assembled since moving to this house.  Recently, as I have been putting together the guest bedroom/library, she hands me books from the moving boxes which I then put on the shelf.  It is slow work, but it is a nice way to work together on projects.  I would estimate that we have done this for at least half an hour a day for the last three weeks.  Crafting is a little hands-off at this point -- I have her roam my craft room and play with all the fun treasures (ribbons, fabrics, pipe cleaners) while I quilt on the sewing machine. 

I cannot wait until the weather gets warmer and we can spend time working in the yard in the vegetable and flower gardens!

Snow then Ice

It's important to keep an eye on Daddy as he shovels

Crayola Factory

While Auntie Kate was visiting, we ventured out to the Crayola Factory.  What a great place for kiddos of all ages.  Alma especially liked the block-building section, the ball conveyor belt, the steps (give her a break, she's barely a toddler) and watching all of the older kids play. 

Joshua liked the Canal Museum where he was yolked.  And we all had a laugh with the clear glass wall where we could supplement each other's faces.  I think I look lovely with a soul patch!

Hooray for Crayola Factory!  And hooray for the fact that it is in Easton, just one town away.  I have a feeling that Alma and I are going be spend many happy afternoons there.