Happy Father's Day!!!

I hope everyone has a really wonderful Father's day! Here are some of my favorite pictures of Stephen with Kirsten. She definitely loves her Daddy!

Thank you Stephen for being such a great Father! We love you!

This Is One of Those Weeks

So guess what time Stephen got home from work last night? Go ahead, guess right now.

Nope, not midnight. . . that was last Friday. Last night he actually didn't make it home at all, until 4 am this morning! You can all feel sorry for us now. This has been his busiest week at work ever (he works for Microsoft, in the XBox Live division), and when he is at home he's been on phone calls or working on his laptop. So he doesn't get any breaks from work, and I don't get any breaks from taking care of the little ones. Yeah. . . we're both exhausted. Can you tell we need a vacation badly? Eight more days until we fly to San Diego, just eight more. I know we can make it!

Don't worry, this post isn't all negative. I happen to have some cute pictures of Kirsten at the park a couple of weekends ago. Isn't this pirate ship SO cool?

This park also had a sandbox inside a boat!

Kirsten is a funny girl. . . whenever we're walking somewhere and one of her shoes falls off, she'll say "Uh-oh, shoes!" It's a good thing she says it, because I don't always notice! She also says "Uh-oh, baby!" when she hears Natalie crying. This is a huge improvement over crying when Natalie cries, like she used to do.

Yesterday I was looking at a magazine, and Kirsten pointed to a picture of Jennifer Lopez and said, "Mommy!" I was like, "Thank you Kirsten!"

Lately she's obsessed with eating watermelon, grapes, blueberries, blackberries, and peaches. This girl would eat fruit and nothing but fruit all day long if she could! The only fruits she doesn't seem to like are raspberries, cantaloupe, and honeydew melon.

She called this fountain a "waterfall."

Natalie was the most wonderful baby in the world over the weekend. . . every single night, she slept 8 hours straight. Hallelujah! 8 weeks old and sleeping 8 hours straight! The last two nights weren't so good, unfortunately, but she's definitely making improvements!

She's such a smiley, happy baby, but she can suddenly realize she's hungry or tired and within two seconds go from smiling to this:

Full-on screaming! And it will continue until she gets fed or rocked to sleep.

Thank goodness she's happy and peaceful most of the time. She loved laying out on the blanket at the park.

Don't you just love tiny little baby toes?

She slept like this in her car seat through the entire three hours of church on Sunday. Didn't I say she was the most wonderful baby in the world over the weekend? I love her so much!

This is my life now, and I do love it!
Just remember to be grateful when your husband comes home from work at 4 or 5 or 6 pm! I'm praying that the craziness will end soon.

Supertasters Unite!

It's really not too fun being a picky eater. I've gotten weird stares and comments like, "Really? You don't like that?" more times than I can count. Believe me, I wish I liked lettuce! I don't know why, but I just don't!

Awhile ago I read a magazine article that I loved, and it defined three different kinds of "tasters." Most people are Medium tasters, who like a lot of foods but have certain foods they don't like. Stephen falls into this category. Then there are the Non-Tasters. . . those people who will eat anything. Everyone knows someone who's like that. The third kind of taster is the Supertaster, otherwise known as the picky eater. Supertasters actually have many times more taste buds than other tasters, and as a result experience flavors much more intensely than others. It's genetic and we have no control over it.

So I'm not picky. . . I'm a Supertaster! Sounds much cooler, doesn't it?

This list is incomplete, but here's a sampling of some of the foods I just don't like and hate to eat:
*Peppers
*Onions
*Fish
*Eggs
*Cottage cheese
*Potato salad
*Cabbage
*Lettuce
*Dill pickles
*Spaghetti
*Mushrooms
*Beets
*Brussels sprouts
*Chinese food (I hate the sauces)
*Coleslaw
*Coconut
*Teriyaki or BBQ sauce
*Turnips
*Asparagus
*Rice

What kind of taster are you?

*Cool thing I just found out about: Today is Free Hot Dog on a Stick day! If you live near a Hot Dog on a Stick, you can go between 5 and 8 pm today and get one free dog per person. I know where we'll be eating dinner tonight!

Things I Look Forward To

One thing I have learned about being a stay-at-home mom with little kids:

it is absolutely essential that you have things to look forward to, on a regular basis. If I didn't have that, sometimes I think I really would lose my mind!

Some things I look forward to every day are:
*Seeing Natalie's adorable smiles
*The funny things Kirsten will say throughout the day as her language develops
*Getting new comments on my blog
*Stephen getting home from work

Some things I look forward to weekly:
*So You Think You Can Dance. I loved the first performance show this week. All of the top 20 dancers are absolutely amazing! Wow! And Adam Shankman is my favorite of all the guest judges. He just makes such awesome comments!
*Getting together with friends and having people come over
*Getting out in the nice weather and taking the girls to parks
*Weekends!
*The Bachelorette! I always get SO sucked into this show, and this season is no exception. Thank goodness Jillian got rid of Dave (finally!!!), and it's crazy that the foot-obsessed Tanner is still there. At least he's funny!

My two favorites from the beginning are still going strong! Jake and Kiptyn are just such cute, sweet, really nice guys and I hope they're the final two!
If you watch the show, who are your favorites?

What I'm really looking forward to this month:
*Going to San Diego on June 25'th for our little summer vacay! We are counting the days! I can't wait for the California beaches, visits with friends and family, free babysitting from my parents, yummy food, and the Del Mar Fair (easily the best county fair in the entire world!)

It's been several years since I've been in San Diego during the dates the fair was running, so I am really psyched to get to go this year! I think we'll even go twice. Yes, it really IS that much fun!

Some more things I'm looking forward to this year:
*Sleeping, in my bed, for a full night on a regular basis. That will hopefully happen sometime this year.
*Going to see Wicked in October. We've already got our tickets!
*Hopefully going to Vancouver for a weekend or going camping.
*Christmas!

Adventures at the Zoo

A couple of weeks ago, Stephen and I were brave enough to navigate the Woodland Park Zoo with a newborn and a toddler. I most definitely wouldn't have attempted this feat by myself! Here's my favorite picture from the day. . . me and my baby!

Of course Natalie was oblivious to all the animals. She was just along for the ride.

We got to break in the new double stroller, the Valco Twin Latitude. We hooked the infant seat onto one side, and Kirsten did enjoy riding in the other side. The stroller is really easy to push and steer, much easier than my Graco single stroller despite the heavier weight. So we really like the stroller, with only one con that we've noticed. . . it is a pain to fold up!

Kirsten wanted to get out and climb all over everything. . . which is fine, until you want to put her back in the stroller and she gets mad at you!

But she had a ton of fun exploring the zoo for a couple of hours!

I didn't change her outfit in the middle of the day. . . some of these are pictures from another zoo trip. Uncle Chance actually volunteered to take Kirsten to the zoo by himself one day so I could have a break and stay home with the baby. Talk about a mom's best friend!
Kirsten had a great time at the zoo with him.

They saw this ocelot kitten. . . how adorable is that???

And Kirsten the climber was out in full force.

This peacock we saw was soooo cool, showing off its feathers!

The stinkiest animal at the zoo award has got to go to the flamingos. Nasty! But Kirsten likes them anyway.

She snacked on apples and cheese slices all afternoon in the stroller.

Kirsten knew this was a giraffe!

She also identified the zebra we saw, and I had no idea she knew the word zebra. She really does listen to me when I rattle off animal names! And when we left she said, "Bye zoo!"

A day at the zoo with two young kids. . . lots of fun, but not for the faint of heart.

Chic Carseat

I totally want this carseat cover! It's so adorable!

The bad news? It's $160. Yikes. The actual carseat wasn't that expensive. I definitely won't be buying it. But it doesn't stop me from wishing for it!

Suddenly Summer

Alright, Seattle. . . it's too hot! Since nobody who lives here has air-conditioning in their houses, please bring the temperatures back down to their normal, cool, beautiful selves and give us some respite from this heat!
For the past few days it's been almost 90 degrees here. I know that might not sound too bad to a lot of you desert-dwellers, but imagine it with no AC! These have been some record high temperatures for this time of the year here, and I'm really hoping for some cool weather and SOON! It's a little better today, but I still haven't been able to sleep well at night because of the heat. It's the kind of weather where I wish I could just drive around in the car all day, with the AC blasting right in my face.

Anyway, here are some summery-looking pictures of the two little sunshines in my life:

Natalie is six weeks old now! She's SO smiley, she just loves to focus on someone's face and then start smiling at them and it's the most adorable thing!

*Highlight of the week: Two nights ago, she officially slept through the night for the first time! She slept 8 hours straight, from 1 am until 9. I was thrilled! She didn't do it last night, but I'm hoping for some repeat performances.

She tried to focus in on the camera lens. Isn't the cross-eyed baby face so funny?

And here's some more pictures of Kirsten playing at the park!

I just love the look of pure joy on her face when she's trying to catch the bubbles out of the air.

She wants to blow the bubbles herself. . . but she can't quite figure it out.

Just checked the weather. . . tomorrow's supposed to be back down in the 60's. Hooray!!! Until then, I'll be trying to beat the heat!

"Thank you, Mommy!"

Kirsten has started putting three or four words together to form little sentences! It's SO cute and so much fun to listen to her. Her very favorite thing to say lately is "Thank you, Mommy!" She says it when I give her pretty much anything, whether it's a snack, a toy, a drink, or whatever else. She'll also say "Thank you, Daddy," but I even hear her saying "Thank you, Mommy" when she's alone in her crib before she falls asleep. Sometimes she adds on, "Thank you, Mommy, welcome" because I always say "You're welcome" afterwards.
It's nice to be thanked. :)

Some of her other favorite things to say right now are:
-"Bless you, Mommy," "Bless you, Daddy," and even "Bless you, Baby" after we've sneezed
-"Help, it's stuck!"
-"Bath with bubbles"
-"Where is it?"
-"Oh there it is!"

She can also name lots of characters now from Disney shows she likes. She can name Mickey Mouse (she says that one very clearly), Minnie, Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, Piglet, and Rabbit.

Guess what she figured out today? She can reach a cup up to the water machine on the door of the fridge and put water in it, and even ice! I did not see that one coming!
I recently put one of those door knob covers over the door to the pantry so she can't get into it all day long and pull food out. She gets pretty upset when she tries to open it and yells out, "Help! Help! It's stuck!"

And if you're at any parks north of Seattle anytime soon, you better watch out for the ball thief. Kirsten is magnetically drawn to any ball she sees lying around the parks, as long as it doesn't belong to us. Even if we bring our own, she still goes after everyone else's. As the pictures illustrate, she'll go steal any ball she can find!

At least she's a polite thief. She'll always say "Thank you." :)