Making Gumbo

Iris Lists

2012-01-29T13:37:00.000-08:00

Here's some lists of things about Iris at 1 year and 3 weeks. This is originally a Clark list from the same time. The original can be found here . I'm just going to modify Clark's list by crossing things out and adding some so you know what Iris is up to, and can compare her to Clark as this same age.

IRIS ~~Clark~~ can make the following word-like sounds...

mama
dada
yumyum
~~eggeggegg~~
~~oh no/uh oh~~
bababababa
do (dog)
~~ttttttt (turtle)~~
~~kkkkkkk (Clark)~~
(S)he also "sings" along with me when I sing to him, its like humming with an open mouth and its precious.
(S)he also sings a high note when I play the guitar or (S)he gets excited or when she plays with her Singamathing
SHE can say mmmmmm after taking a big bite of food.
SHE has conversations back to you, even though you don't really know what she is saying.
She makes engine noises when driving a car or train or other machine
She can do our "pee pee" high five that we do with Clark after he pees on the potty. Its a high 5 with a "ptsss" sound
She clicks at cats.

Iris ~~Clark~~ can...

clap
wave hello
wave goodbye ~~(although a minute after the person has left)~~ (as soon as you start discussing going somewhere)
indicate all done ~~(kind-of)~~
shake ~~his~~ her head "no"
stab with the fork (like a murderer)
get food on his fork
fork food into his mouth
put the spoon into the bowl/food area
put the spoon into his mouth ~~(most of the food falls off, but he's getting better)~~
open cabinets
climb stairs
~~go down steps face first - crawling style~~
walk
stand up without pulling-up on an object
bang objects together
"play" the guitar and piano
~~climb into a cardboard box~~
~~sit happily on his potty chair~~
stand on the potty stool and get his hands washed
hug
kiss mama and dada
blow on our bellies =)
sing a very high noted aria.
~~almost always sleep through the night until 6am (we are now working on a 7 am wake up/expect mommy to get-to-work time)~~
Iris can additionallly....

climb down the stairs, and slide down on her belly like a rocket
eat with desire and pleasure
slap her legs to a rhythm when certain songs come on
dance back and forth
swing her arms like holding a baby
point
feed us food on a spoon
put food in my mouth, or in the Singamathing's mouth
get us to do just about anything she wants at any time... go figure.

things Iris ~~Clark~~ doesn't like...

~~wearing hats~~
~~wearing his bike helmet~~
being laid down to get ~~his~~ her diaper changed
~~balls or balloons or things that are larger than his head.~~
getting knocked over by Clark (or Owen)
not getting what she wants when she wants it

things that will make Iris ~~Clark~~ ridiculously happy...

being ticked on his knees, toes, and neck
~~extreme~~ peekaboo
~~running between dangling things (strings, curtains)~~
~~watching himself on video~~
Tom's funny faces
~~plastic Solo cups~~
Iris additionally loves

dogs, cats, and any fluffy real or stuffed (including her Elmo chair and pillows)
music
being lifted up into the air in order to enjoy things on the ceiling or on a high shelf
climbing up onto anything so she is higher
Clark's funny faces
food

things that Clark really likes to do right now.
~~Drag things around the house including:~~

~~Alligator Piano/Xylophone drug by the string and mallet~~
~~Puppy Dog drug by the leash~~
~~Camera Case drug by the shoulder strap~~
~~Shoes drug by the laces~~

~~Chew on things and walk including:~~

~~very large cardboard boxes~~
~~pencils, spoons, long stick-like objects (we remain vigilant for his safety)~~

Door interactions

stand by the door and look out at the world
bang on the door
open and close the door (but not his fingers- that goes under "dislikes!"
~~climb face first out of the doorstep~~

Other things

walk around with toys and leave them scattered all over the house
open and close cabinets and doors
~~inspect everything that looks like a button, grommet, knob or protruding round thing (and see if it has milk in it)~~
turn things like gears or handles and generally try to modify the environment
this kid really loves mechanics.

Iris things

play with balls
play with cars or trains or busses or things with wheels
color on a magnadoodle
play with an electronic "ipad" thing that she got for Christmas
anything that makes music
opening and closing desk drawers
taking things out of boxes, laundry baskets, cabinets
putting things into boxes, laundry baskets, cabinets.
going down the slide
swinging
climbing stairs
climb the playground structure and go down the curly slide all by herself.

We love him.
We do love Clark, be we love Iris too. She's amazing.
Love, Veronica and Tom.

An interview with Clark

2012-01-29T13:19:00.000-08:00

An interview with Clark about the Meadowside Nature Center Preschool Field trip on Tuesday where we played in an indoor outdoor exhibit featuring caves with a slide, eating lunch outside, and playing with dishes.

Clark, tell me what you did today.

Today, Kathryn said no pushing. I push Owen. No pushing.

Tell me what we did today.

We saw Owen and Emily and Kathryn and Sara and we went down the slide.

Where was the slide?

In the dark cave.

And then what did we do?

Lunch. We ate lunch outside.

What did you do after you ate lunch?

Sticks with Owen. We picked up fireworks. We collected fireworks. (referring to firewood. Then he sings) What's gonna work? Team work! What's gonna work? Team work! (because they worked together to move giant sticks)

Anything else?

Mommy, then I chopped fireworks for you. Then I made some coffee for you. Then we went down the slide. Then we hit. No hitting.

Sleepover!

2012-01-22T09:57:00.000-08:00

Clark and Owen at preschool, well, making a train on our train table, and Abby, another friend and her barbie.

Abby is pretty cute!

Ok, so here's the sleepover photos.
Our poor friend Kathryn was abandoned by her husband as he went to Jordan for 11 days to do some top secret military stuff. She was soley responsible for care of her son, Owen, for ELEVEN whole days. We took pity upon her and took Owen for the night. It was super fun. What did Kathryn do with her night off? She took her dog to the vet because Iris fed him grapes. Not fun for her, sorry Kathryn, at least you got a break from Owen.

The boys are reading a Thomas book.

They are playing bumper cars.

And a long bath for all 3 kids.

with silly faces

and bubble beards

her royal adorableness

oh so cute.

It was fun. The end.

January cooking!

2012-01-22T09:50:00.000-08:00

Tom made Tom Ka Gai, a Thai Coconut Lemongrass soup with chicken. yummmmm

It has been a tasty month for us.

Recently, Tom made the most delicious steaks ever! It was Filet Minon steaks from our Amish dealer (grass-fed, organic, local) wrapped in yummy bacon, deliciously seasoned.

Clark is a great helper in the kitchen. Here he is measuring Thyme. We are making Pistachio Encrusted Tilapia

and getting ready to pour it in the food processor (don't worry, I'm careful about the blade!)

and here he's grinding up the pistachios and seasonings.

And after a long day of helping, we let the kids relax with their favorite snacks. Iris and her milk, Clark and his thumb.

Greenwell Family Photos

2012-01-10T18:54:00.000-08:00

	Since we were all together for the holiday for the first time in a few years, and we had two new babies since our last gathering, we got Greenwell family photos done!
top L to R: James, Dad, Mom, John. Bottom L to R: Monica, Ray, Tom, Andrea

beautiful sisters

Nana and Grandpa with the kids. Clockwise starting with Noon. Will, Ivy, Ruby, Clark, Iris, Ben and Sophia

Everyone!

Just the dudes

Clark has been sucking his thumb and finger lately, this was captured in the rare moment when his finger was out of his mouth!

Our baby Joy, Iris.

Our beautiful, laughing family.

We lined the kids up to take a photo of them all. We told them it was a race!

IT was hard for them to hold still while we got the shots!

On your mark, get set, GO!

Ivy didn't want to leave Iris.

Sophia wasn't sure what was going on.

When Ivy finally realized that Iris couldn't run (or walk!) she took off. Iris indicated, "I'm waiting for someone to come pick me up and run me over there with the big kids!"

Daddy's Girl

Oh, she's so beautiful!

and he's a nut!

and a wonderful big brother.

All the ladies!

what the big kids did while everyone was getting their family photo!

we're a fun group!

our family with Nana

helping Iris walk. This is probably my favorite picture.

Silly kids with Nana and Grandpa!

How to make an awesome holiday...

2012-01-10T18:14:00.000-08:00

STEP 1: High 5 on an airplane,

Step 2: Have tons of fun on the airport playground during a layover.

Step 3: find Cozy Coupe in California. Play in it constantly.

Step 4: Run around with cousins! Act as crazy and insane as possible (or as your parents allow before asking you to be quiet or calm down).

Step 5: Mimosas!

Step 6: Open presents with Daddy!

Step 7: Open presents with mommy!

Step 8: Enjoy thyself with thine family.

Step 9: Enjoy thy presents!

Step 10: Find that Cozy Coupe and PLAY!

or a scooter

or a skateboard with no wheels! Whatever, just have fun!

Step 11: Go to the beach. Dig to China.

Step 12: Go to Wild Animal Park and admire animals.

giraffe tongues!

but don't become one yourself,

Grrrrrrr!

enjoy your family

give lots of hugs,

and explore

Step 13: Enjoy local parks and visitors centers. Here's Clark at Mission Trail Visitor Center making a leaf drawing!

and adding a hand leaf to the tree!

Step 14 = SEA WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Step 15: Celebrate life, like Iris' First Birthday!

Step 16: Visit with Friends, like our NFP teachers Dave and Cheryl.

Step 17: Love your sister

and your Nana!

and Nana's dog ALLIE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Step 18: Enjoy the Cozy Coupe... did I say that already? Make sure no one is in it though... Ben drove around on Iris' lap for a while before Tom rescued her!

Step 19: If you have a holiday goal, I recommend pursuing it....

and achieving it!

Step 20: Smile

enjoy family and down time,

Cozy Coupe!!!!!!

and finally.... enjoy life's little

Surprises!!!!!!!!!!

There was more beach and friend visits, and some surfing too! Maybe we'll post photos of those things, or maybe we won't. But it was a great holiday and we had lots of fun with our little nieces and nephews. Clark loved his cousins, and Iris loved nana's dog! We are glad we went, and we are really glad to be back in our time zone in our own beds. We hope you had a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year, and a great time in between! Love, the Greenwells!

Cars and Carousels.

2011-12-20T13:35:00.000-08:00

http://saveitdontspendit.blogspot.com/2011/12/enjoying-some-last-minute-spending.html

My other blog has some photos of the kids from today.
We rode the Metro (choo choo!) down to the Mall. We walked to the Ellipse of the White House and saw the National Christmas tree and all of the State Trees. Clark and his friend, Owen, were mesmerized by the Choo-Choos! under the big tree. They watched them for about an hour. Iris happily crawled around.
Then we walked on the Mall towards the Carousel near the Smithsonian Castle. We rode it and played in the dirt and rocks nearby. Then we rode the Chooo Chooooo home!
It was a great day.

The kids have also been enjoying one of their Christmas presents.... New Cars! I was assembling them when I took these photos (with my cell phone), but the kids - especially Iris - are crazy for them. Iris will sit in it for hours, opening and closing the door, backing herself into a corner. She even rocked so hard in it that she knocked it over, and then laughed! What a nutter! Clark loves it when I push his down our driveway (into the grass). It's his roller coaster!

December 2011

2011-12-16T11:16:00.000-08:00

I've been letting Clark take photographs and this is what he's coming up with.

Iris is not interested in taking photos yet, her favorite thing to do is hide in the cabinets


That's Tom and Iris.

This Advent, we've taken a music class called Making Music Praying Twice. Its like music together classes, but with a Catholic point of view, meaning we sing Christmas songs about Jesus not Santa.

Before coming to our 4pm class, we went to the playground. It was sprinkling and 50 degrees, the temperature dropped as the rain fell heavier and heavier. I never bring extra clothes, but I had a box of things that Iris had already grown out of. Clark ended up in these dry, warm girl clothes. I'm glad they were able to have such fun on such a yucky day.

Clark's cute outfit and musical instruments. Iris is there in the front.

Getting instruments again.

Iris rocking out. She really loves shaky eggs. I made some this morning out of plastic Easter eggs, tape and beads.

Very intent on shaking. She actually shook them to the beat too!

While the teacher rocks the baby Jesus, Iris destroys both the nativity and the prayer table.

Just another photo of Iris the adorable darling!

Save It, Don't Spend It

2011-12-06T12:54:00.000-08:00

Save It, Don't Spend It.

My new blog, a path to reaching financial goals by ceasing to spend money in 2012. Let's use peer pressure to stop spending money. Who needs an iphone4s (even though I want one so bad)? Who needs a birthday present? None of us! Handmade cards coming your way!

In 2012, I plan on being the ultimate tightwad. How about you?

traveling for 80 years

2011-12-05T13:09:00.000-08:00

Iris and I just went to Florida. We saw my brother and his youngest, Tessa.

We stayed with my Aunt Nina, Uncle Bernard and Cousin Nico. Nico and Bernard were especially baby crazy and couldn't get enough of Tessa and Iris. We traveled for my grandpa's 80th birthday! All of my aunts and uncles and my mom and dad came. Most of the grandchildren, myself included, were there, and Iris and Tessa representing the great grand children.

Iris enjoyed traveling. She especially liked takeoff and landing in the plane. Her favorite part may have been all of the attention.

And here's a picture of Clark washing the dishes.

Milestones

2011-11-10T11:51:00.000-08:00

Iris has her 3rd tooth. She ate her first shrimp last night. We are trying to keep her from eating grains, but she eats lots of chips and rice off of the floor. She remains completely awesome. She wakes about twice at night, sometimes zero, sometimes 4, when she's sick. She can walk if you hold her hands. Yesterday she climbed the stairs at my friend's house in the 2 minutes it took me to turn my back to change Clark's diaper. Yes, she is my danger girl. She babbles her own little baby language and doesn't do any baby signs. She does shake her head sometimes to say no, but that one she made up herself. She adores all of us, as she should. She loves dogs and laughs uncontrollably in their presence.

Clark has 20 teeth. He eats everything except for gluten, and whatever else he doesn't want to eat. If it was up to him, all meals would involve cake, candy, cookies, chocolate, Brussel sprouts, carrots or peas. He asks if everything is "gluten free" and revels in things that are. When we were going through the halloween candy, Tom let Iris chew on a bag of Skittles. Clark told her, "that's gluten free, Iris." it was super cute. He loves Iris and involves her in almost everything. He does not like it when he is sitting or standing on a chair and she cruises over. In those circumstances he pushes her. He also likes to roll on her, but I think he thinks its loving and a fun game. She does not always agree. He steals her walker all of the time and calls it his bulldozer. He loves trucks, firetrucks, tractors, construction equipment, rockets, airplanes, helicopters, machines of any sort. He is taking a soccer class this fall with his friend, Will Clark (born 4 days after him to Katie Noonan). It is a little over his head, but it is for all of the kids too. Maybe we'll try again next year. He loves his friends, especially Owen Farmer, who he asks about all of the time. Anytime we get in the car or I talk on the phone he hopefully says, "Owen?" He likes painting, glueing things, cooking with me - especially pouring and mixing. He pulls the chair all over the house to be able to reach things that we've put out of his reach. He has an imagination now and is always talking about monsters. He isn't afraid of them, sometimes we hide from the monsters and jump out to scare them. He is at an incredibly fun age. We go to the playground every day. He loves the swings - still, and is a great climber. He is able to play games with the other kids in the park, and I especially like it when they chase each other! He's very polite and says "thank you" unprompted most of the time, "your welcome" when someone says thank you to him. I wish he would always say "please" instead of whining, but he doesn't. Hmmmmm....... He has a guitar toy and loves to dance around with it while listening to music. He has a career in the Rock arts in the future. He loves to dance, then slam the guitar on the ground, and then roll around. He is awesome. I have zero clue where he got that.

I have 27 teeth. I have my most profound thoughts about life, children, motherhood, faith and family when we are walking in our nearby woods (Rock Creek). I always hope to come home and write a blog about it but never do. I ran a 10K in 1 hour 9 minutes and 36 seconds. I stopped to tie my shoe and use a port a potty in that time. I am amazing. It was an incredible race. I should write about it one day, but not today. I am taking ballet which is offered by our city and I love it. I hope I can take it forever, but it will depend on my work/teaching schedule. I am working with friends Kathryn and Sarah to make a co-op preschool for our kids, its fun. I am co-leading the moms group at our church with a program called Play and Pray. Its a playgroup with prayer, just like it sounds. We meet once a month and love it. I've got a number of parenting groups on facebook that I'm coordinating. I'm teaching childbirth stuff and starting to take Doula clients. I've been to two births so far and I like it. I continue to love Tom, Clark and Iris, which is perhaps the most important thing I do.

Tom has 28 teeth. He will turn 35 this weekend and is very excited about this landmark birthday. He recently had sinus surgery. His mom came out to help us through it, watching the kids while I went to the hospital and to appointments with him. Thank God she was here. He likes work and is doing his big neuroscience conference next week. He's excited to be planning a big road trip for us. We will be driving down to Louisiana for Thanksgiving! He was in a triathlon at the beginning of October and got 1st place in Swimming, 15th overall. Isn't that awesome?!?! He really kicked its butt! He likes his job still, but I think we all secretly want to move further South. So, keep that in mind when searching the government classifieds for neuroscience jobs. ;-) (if any NEI people are reading this, its just a fantasy, and we aren't really ever moving, so don't worry).

That's all I can think of now. Thanks for listening! =)

Fall in review.

2011-11-10T11:34:00.000-08:00

I give up keeping up with this thing. I'm sorry everyone. From here on out, I'm just going to daily digest this blog and that will have to be enough. Although, the daily digest may have to be a seasonal digest. We'll see if I can keep up with that!

Here are some of my favorite photos from the Fall.

Clark and Iris made a huge splashy, bubbly mess in the bathroom. Iris was covered with bubbles, Clark was thrilled and cheering the whole time he was splashing. Iris loves the bathroom. What is it with babies and bathrooms? or electricity for that matter? and dangerous cords? and choking hazards? Iris is my danger girl.
Here's some pics from Halloween. Iris fell asleep early, but it was a nap. She wokWhen she was still sleeping, we tried to get Clark into his Winnie the Poo costume. He resisted, cried and generally acted like a child. So, we took this cute photo with Tom in Iris' costume, me in Clarks, and Clark in his pumpkin shirt that he was already wearing. I did eventually wrestle the boy into the costume and force him to trick or treat. Either Tom or I carried him the whole way. He and Iris had had a fever on and off the entire week. It was a hard week for them.

Iris is ADORABLE.
This is one of my favorite photos of her in her favorite spot, under the coffee table!

And as a mother, nothing has made me more happy than seeing how these two crazy kids love each other. Clark asks to hold her constantly. We went to vote the other day and I let someone hold Iris while I went in the booth. She was gone for one minute when Clark asked, "where's our baby?" In many ways the 3 of us are one person who all belong together. I've heard of the mother-baby di-ad, but we've definitely got a triad going on.

We love the Zoo and hanging out with Owen and Kathryn Farmer!

We've been buying apples from the farmers market. We can buy a bushel of "seconds" which means slightly "flawed", for $7, so we have. Its fun to think of ways to incorporate them into meals. Here is some Apple Chicken, Apple Risotto, Greenbeans with apples. it was all yummy.

We made Apple Cider, yum.

Although I'm not keeping up with the blog, we are having gallons of fun in our lives. We really can't complain. I just hope we can remember it all for later!

Happy Birthday Tom!!!!

2011-11-10T11:29:00.000-08:00

This is Tom's big year! He's 35!!!!! We celebrated a few weeks ago by taking a Segway tour of DC, something Tom has always wanted to do.

Here's Tom learning how to ride it. Its a lot like Skiing!
Tom has a dream!

Autumn is Beautiful

2011-11-10T11:25:00.000-08:00

And we are enjoying it!

These kids were drinking crazy juice

2011-09-17T16:08:00.000-07:00

This is 3 videos of them "bof laughing".
Watch when you are in a bad mood and need some joy in your life.

Preschool

2011-09-17T15:54:00.000-07:00

Here are some photos from the co-op Preschool I do with my friends Sarah Berry and Kathryn Farmer. Sarah is Emily's mom, and Kathryn is Owen's mom. These photos are post-lesson, during "crazy time", what some real preschools call "free play". We each lead a lesson about once a month. This lesson was about night time. Clark wore his pajamas. He is getting opinionated about his clothing and loves the many pairs of spiderman pajamas he has.

And Owen, he loves Owen too!

New York -

2011-09-17T15:20:00.000-07:00

We drove up to New York last weekend to stay with Uncle Ray and Aunt Karla. They live in Long Beach, Long Island. It took about 6 hours with stops and both kids did excellently. It was a trial trip for driving down to Louisiana for Thanksgiving, and again this March.

The trip happened over the 9/11 weekend, so we stayed in Long Beach and didn't venture into the city. We hung around Ray and Karla's house. We went to the beach. Here are some photos.

There was a sailing regatta AND a Quicksilver surfing competition this weekend. Ray and Tom went out to surf (not in the competition, just in the ocean). I think two of these surfers might be them.

The kiddies played in the sand. Iris mostly ate it. I built castles and Clark would smash them. We found 2 sand crabs.

Iris had fun exploring their house and playing with their doggies! Both of the kids loved playing with the dogs' toys!

We did a lot of standing around and talking. We also did some sitting and talking.

Tom's cousin Paul came out from Brooklyn and visited with us. He brought his girlfriend, Stephanie, who is in midwifery school. We had a lot to talk about. ;-)

And one last photo demonstrating the incredible height of Uncle Ray,
and the incredible adorableness of Iris.

Clark's first day of soccer

2011-09-17T15:11:00.000-07:00

We signed up for soccer lessons this fall. Clark is taking these classes with his friend Will, whose parents are Katie and Brian. Will is just 4 days younger than Clark. Here is a photo of Clark in his soccer clothes with his new soccer ball and shin guards. He is holding a car he got for pooping on the potty yesterday. He's getting so big!

Here's a video of the most organized part of the soccer lesson. They were kicking the balls into the cones to knock them over. Clark got the message about knocking them over all right! He's in a navy blue hoodie. The boy in the second part is Will. He is with his dad, Brian.

Rain, Rain Go Away! (or what we'd talk about if you called me on the phone today)

2011-09-08T19:45:00.000-07:00

- This is my complainy post. There are also kid updates below. No photos this time, sorry, just rambley words.

Its soooooo rainy. I think we have the entrails of some Tropical Storm (Lee)? peeing all over us. It has been raining since this weekend. I feel so bad for Texas and their drought.

In addition to the rain, I've been sick this week and Clark and Iris have had runny noses, and Clark has a little cough. That means we have been stuck indoors for 3 whole days. To some people this may sound fine. Those people do not have a wild and crazy Clark on their hands.

Sometimes I wonder if he is going to have ADD or ADHD or some other hyperactive child disorder. Then I remember that he is a child and his natural curiosity is what is helping him learn so much about the natural world, and test the boundaries of his imagination and physical limits. That said, he is pretty wild and crazy. Most days we plan something to do in the morning and it usually involves other kids his age, or the outdoors or using a ton of energy. We usually spend one day at home each week and that's a day for laundry. That day usually also involves a trip to the playground or playing in the back yard and porch for a few hours.

So we were trapped, no playground, no friends to communicate illness too, no indoor play places to spread illness, no nothing. So what did we do this week?

On Tuesday I felt the most yucky so we watched TV pretty much all day. I know, a shining moment of parenthood right there. Well, I wish I could take a sick day and lay in bed and nap and eat chicken soup and drink orange juice, but I can't. So we watch TV. We must have done some other things, but I don't remember. I think we made smoothies. The smoothie recipe comes from the Janzens. Daron told me it is 5 things: strawberries, banana, flax, orange juice and yogurt. We used yummy greek yogurt.

On Wednesday, I begged my best friend in the whole wide world, Liz Barturen, to come down from Hagerstown, MD to keep me company and play with the children. She did. I love her. She wanted to go to this giant new Whole Foods they built down here. We trooped over to Whole Foods in torrential downpour, found a garage and parked the car. We rode the elevator down and found out we were in the wrong garage and we had to move the car. We found another garage and mazed our way to the elevators to Whole Foods and mazed our way into the giant store. It took probably 45 minutes to get from the first garage into the store. Liz said it was our adventure for the day. The kids were happy, I was happy.

We shopped the whole store. I bought5 items for $50, big surprise, right? The things I bought were the yummiest whole food staples though: Golden yellow butter from pastured cows, Coconut oil, Maple Syrup, Olive Oil hand soap (the only cure for my Dumbledore eczema hand), gluten free pasta noodles. I did buy a few pounds of butter, that increased my debt to WF.

What did we do then? We brought the kids home. We hung out a little while longer. I love that Liz is up here living with her dad again. I hope she lives here as long as we do. It is so wonderful to have her here. I think its good because she knew me before I was a mom and I'm still a person to her, who happens to have a husband and kids. She loves the kids. She's their Aunt Liz. It is really cool.

On Thursday, we had smoothies again, but we also used a grapefruit, which was a lovely addition to the smoothie. I also used Coconut Oil. Coconut oil is delicious and the fats in it are some of the best fats on the planet to eat. They help you fight viruses and bacteria and fungus and anything else. They are awesome for your heart and brain! I hope they cure my cold, right?!?

Today I decided I was feeling well enough to go out in public with other children. We went to the Mall. Clark played and Iris crawled all over the indoor playspace.

On the way home, GASP!, they both fell asleep at the same time. Then they both napped back at the house at the same time. God was kind to me. I had a very lovely break from parenting for a few hours. I worked on my business stuff.

Business Stuff: I went to my first birth a week ago. It was long and difficult, exhausting and inspiring. I'm so glad I was able to be a doula for this couple. I can't wait to do it again.

Upcoming this fall: I'm going to teach 2 private "refresher" courses this fall, and one "long course" for first time parents starting at the end of October. This fall, I'm also going to take Ballet one evening a week. One day per week, I'm going to take Mommy and Kid yoga class. My friends and I have a "co-op" preschool where we meet once a week, so that's another thing we're doing. Once a month I run a playgroup called "Happy Healthy Playgroup" designed to support my students in their motherhood. It has been really successful so far and I really love it. Once a month we also meet with our Mom's group at church. I'm also doing a 10K, Tom is doing a Triathlon.

Wait? Did you just say that Clark gets his hyper activity from me? no. couldn't be.

He gets a few other things from me too. He says, "sure" if you ask him an affirmative question. If you ask him what he wants he says, "ummmmm" or "How 'bout...." He is starting to say that things "suck" which reminds me I need to watch my language. He loves anything with wheels and balls and sports. Clark is going to be taking a soccer class this fall. He is really excited about it. If you ask him what he is going to do today he will respond... "Soccer in two weeks!" actually, sometimes he says "basketball" which he also loves. We'll have to get him into a class this winter. We are going to take the soccer class with Will Clark, the little boy who was born 4 days after Clark Greenwell. His mom is Katie N.

ummmm... I know I'm rambling, but I've had a frustrating week so its therapeutic to help me focus on things, good and bad, that have happened recently.

Clark is really speaking in sentences and expressing his ideas pretty clearly. He does throw whiney fits a few times a day, but I attribute that more to my lack of managing him well more than anything else.

Lately Clark has this new stall technique before going to bed. When I put him in bed, he starts screaming "food food". He'll do this even if he just ate dinner, so don't worry, I'm not starving the boy. If he hasn't just had dinner, then he will usually eat a whole bunch in order to postpone bedtime. It is actually genius, he eats and then he goes to bed. He even sleeps longer in the morning because he isn't starved at 6am. His diet is pretty decent. He eats a ton of fruits and vegetables and sometimes cheese, yogurt and eggs. Occasionally he will drink a glass of milk. He mostly drinks juice, which isn't that great, but the best we feel we can do right now. He has cereal and sometimes crackers, chips or popcorn for a snack. We make him "Clarky snacks" which are raisins (sometimes other dried fruit like mango, pineapple or apricot), Chex cereal (gluten-free!) and some nuts. He eats every kind of nut he can. One of his friends is allergic to pistachios and cashews, so we have to keep that in mind when hanging out with her, but otherwise they aren't a problem.

Now Iris. Iris doesn't eat much of anything. When Clark was her age, I was anxiously shoving food in his face, having him reject it, me crying, him frustrated that I persisted, me reading books on getting your kid to eat, me worried about his weight gain and what the doctor would say. I watched his weight plummet from 90%tile to 75th to 50th to 25th to 10%tile, always feeling like I was the one who was wrong. We got his weight up because we fed him massive doses of goldfish cracker, fruit snacks, and ice cream. It wasn't logically healthy food, it was "get the kid to eat" food. I understand why America has an obesity epidemic.

I'm not worrying about feeding Iris. She sometimes grabs food off of our plates and we let her eat it. She has bits of fruits, vegetables and meats. I'm not giving her grains. Clark likes to eat the skin off of peaches and pears, so I'll cut up the rest and freeze it for her for later. The fruit is fresh and local from our CSA.

Iris can crawl, and pull up. She can babble, and does incessantly. It is wonderful. She says both "mamammama" and "dadadadada" and some other noises, maybe "yayayayya" but not "Clark". I'm sure she will soon.

She continues to be a wonderful child. She is deliciously fat, as she really only gets my fat inducing milk to eat. We call her the "baby seal" because she loves swimming, baths, water of any sort and has a nice thick layer of blubber.

Its funny how baby fat is so delicious. Everyone wants to squeeze it, pinch it, or, like me, nibble it. Its so thick and soft. I wish people would grab my tummy fat and say, "oh this is so yummy". What is wrong with us as a society? It is really a weird thing when you think about it, but it must be some evolutionary love for a baby that is going to survive because they are so fat....

Now that she is crawling, though, I know its the end of her fattening up phase. I expect in a year she'll be thin and tall like Clark. She'll be walking, running and climbing. She'll be just starting to drive me crazy.

It is amazing how fast they grow.

Anyway, I hope this rain goes away. We are driving to New York tomorrow to visit Tom's Uncle Ray and Aunt Karla in Long Island. It is 9/11 weekend so I hope nothing bad happens up there, and at the very least, the traffic isn't horrible. Wish us luck! It is our first big road trip with Clark and our first with Iris too!

Rain walk.

2011-09-08T19:43:00.000-07:00

This is a moment I want to remember forever.

We took this wonderful walk tonight when Tom came home from work. We made our way down to Rock Creek Park, slow as molasses, following the stop and go whims of Mr. Precious. When we got into the park, I carried him. We got to Rock Creek, usually far below us, with a high bank. It was swollen, maybe 4-6 feet. It was running fast. You could hear the energy in the water. We threw some seeds, sticks and leaves into the water. It started to rain again. We weren't surprised. We started home, Clark, Tom and I with umbrellas and Iris in the stroller. Clark loved having his own umbrella. He kept saying, "daddy has umbrella, mommy has umbrella, Clark has umbrella". His umbrella was leopard print. He was wearing a size 4T Firetruck shirt on his 2T body, jean shorts peaking out underneath the shirt hem. White socks with blue and red stripes pulled high above his brown rain boots. The rain hitting the trees above us was like applause. The rain on my umbrella was a tippy tappy tap dancer. The air smelled like nothing, days of rain had already removed the smell of earth and sweat from the air. Tom pushed the stroller ahead of me with his green and white umbrella. He leaned forward to try to keep Iris dry, his back was soaked. I glanced back to see Clark walking slowly, listening, looking, absorbing the life around us.

It was a pretty wonderful day.

2011-08-24T19:43:00.001-07:00

Tom's brother, James recently mentioned that I was falling behind on the blog. I'm sorry. I think it has taken me about 7 months to get used to having 2 kids, and now I'm up for it again. At one point I'd like to go back in time and write some good updates, but for now I just want to write about today. It was the kind of day I want to file away in my memory bank for forever. I'll begin in the morning.

Iris slept the entire night without waking me. This was the second night in a row she's done this. The first night, I woke up throughout the night to listen for her, and in the morning with an aching chest. The second night, I slept hard and woke comfortably to the morning light peaking through the cracks. I tried to resist the morning, but I was so rested, I really was awake. It was lovely to wake up for "no reason" as opposed to baby noises, Clark's scampering feet or an alarm clock. Tom and I even got to cuddle for a few minutes before we heard Clark banging around downstairs.

We all got up and had a yummy breakfast. We had some wonderful eggs from "happy chickens" and I juiced a few carrots with an apple and kale. Clark and I shared this "special carrot juice" while he ate a bowl of cereal and apple slices.

The past few days have been pretty cool for this area this time of year. It is "September weather" in my opinion. We slept the last two nights with the windows open and the A/C off. Maybe that's why Iris slept so well the last few nights.

Anyway, the nice weather is inspiring me to get running again. I usually skip out on it in August because it is too hot to walk to the car, let alone tie your shoes and go for a jog! Not today.

I decided today was an excellent day for a long practice run. I'm doing a 10K in October as part of the Marine Corps Marathon.

I'm running on the Run for Vocations team which is raising money for our seminarians (please give!). So I drove the van and the kids to Tom's work by the Twinbrook Metro. We metro'd up to Shady Grove Metro (almost in Gaithersburg) and I proceeded to run home.

Here's the map, but I ran from the 6 to the green flag, not the other way around. It was 6 miles of hard running on sidewalks and the roadway. The first 2 miles were in the full sun, and the second 2 miles were ridiculously hilly. The last 2 were in my regular running ground - shady and pretty flat. It was hard, but I'm glad I did it. I did the route in 1 hour and 41 minutes, pushing the jogging stroller and 2 kids, with lots of hills and I stopped 1 time to talk on the phone and 1 time to backtrack and look for a dropped item. The max time you are allowed to take for the 10K is 1 hour and 30 minutes. I think it shouldn't be a problem to finish, and that's what I was trying to determine today.

The blessing of the run were that the kids both slept for part of it, which was unexpected, but awesome. 1 hour and 40 minutes in the stroller is a long time. Another blessing of the run was the beautiful area I ran through. This is Rock Creek Park, the last 2 miles of the run.

This is Lake Needwood, the middle 2 miles.

I really love the beauty of this area. The trees and the water are so refreshing and nourishing. I am truly blessed to live here and every time I am in a "wild" place I am reminded of what God has made for us to enjoy.

Towards the end of the jog, the kids woke up and got fussy. I made them stay in the stroller until I was finished, but let them walk the rest of the way home. Oh, sorry. I let Clark slowly meander up the massive hill that led towards home, and I held Iris. This is the google street view of the massive hill. It is long and steep.

At the top of the hill was a special treat, though. We have a new Methodist Church being built, and something being built means... Tractors!

I parked the stroller in the grass by the sidewalk, plunked Iris down so she could practice standing up (yes, that's right ladies and gentlemen, she is pulling up to standing already, holy cow!) and put Clark on my shoulders. We stood and watched the backhoe dig a big hole in the ground. Then it drove around to a dump truck full of rocks and scooped them up. The tractor drove back to the hole and then waited. It was waiting for a pipe to be installed, which we didn't see. While it was waiting, the driver turned off the engine and talked to us. He loved it!

We walked a little further to a playground by the Aspen Hill Co-op Preschool. Clark begged to stop and play. I was tired and my legs hurt and I wanted to go home, but instead we stopped to play. The air was cool. Trees shaded the park, and the sunlight danced through the leaves. Clark ran around with some other children. Iris crawled on the grass for a little while. We moved over to the sand box. Clark played with trucks. I showed him how to pour sand through one toy to sift the rocks out, and then the sifted sand poured on a wheel to make it turn. He finally understood how it worked and did it himself. It is amazing to watch him learn new things. 2 and a half is a magical age. Iris crawled around in the sand, occasionally tasting it and deciding she didn't like it. 7 months is pretty magical too.

I guess moments like this aren't especially "special" to others, but to me they are. They are the treasures I lock up to keep in my heart forever. It is in moments like these that I know I am the happiest women in the world and wouldn't want any other life.

Clark never wanted to leave the sand. I finally convinced him to leave by promising him that daddy would bring him ice cream. Tom was having "free ice cream" day at work and I knew he would bring home something for Clark. So we walked the rest of the way home.

It was about 12:30 by the time we made it home. The house was dark (as always) and cool due to the windows being open. I dropped Iris off in Clark's room where she started wheeling a truck around. Clark asked to color. I set him up at the table with a "Waste water treatment" coloring book he got last week at the Montgomery County Fair. I finally got into the shower to get the grime of the run off of me. As I was showering I heard Iris making her baby noises and Clark talking to her. Then, the shower curtain pulled back and there they both were smiling up at me. Iris pulled up to standing on the edge of the bathtub and had a huge grin with her two bottom teeth poking out. Clark was as pleased as ever with his big right dimple, and the left dimple going too. I finished my shower and got out. After getting dressed, I fed Clark and nursed Iris. Tom came home soon after with ice cream as promised.

What happened next? We dropped Tom off at work, this was the way to get the van back to me from the morning's metro excursion. Then we went to Target. I looked through Clearance clothes looking for a special shirt that wasn't there. Then we went up to the toy section. Clark ran amok in the car and Cars 2 (the movie) isle. He carried toys off of the shelf asking, "bring home?". He found the big Tonka trucks and just so many other fun things. He is so good about not taking toys home and knows he can play with the boxes as long as he doesn't destroy them. Eventually, we headed out of Target. I did buy one drink for 88 cents because I was so thirsty, but otherwise no money was spent.

We went to the Twinbrook Library. They have a nice kids section with puzzles and those wire things you move beads on, and a block table. Clark ran over to the blocks, Iris crawled on the floor - headed to the little kids chairs to work on pulling up. I grabbed a few books on Yellowstone National Park - my latest obsession and read them on the floor. Clark eventually came over and started bringing me books to read. Oh joy! He brought me.. picture books... with plots! Yay! the days of one word pages may be behind Clark and I! We read book after book and even on in Chinese! I tried to tell the story based on the pictures, but still I'm not sure what happened with the giraffe whose legs were used as posts for a clothes line. It was kind of confusing. After a while we started to leave, but in walked a dog! It was a reading dog. It sits there with its owner and kids read to it. Clark is crazy about dogs so we had to stay. We stayed for a little while to pet and read to the dog.

Then we headed home. I fed Clark and Iris napped. After his dinner, we played in the yard. We kicked around a ball and swung in the hammock. Clark lay on my chest and together we swang and looked up at the leaves rustling in the trees.

After a while Tom came home from work. He left soon after to go swimming in training for a triathlon he is doing in early October.

I ate dinner, Clark played in our wading pool. Tom came home from the pool and took Iris so Clark could get some alone time with me.

Clark had a bath and then we read a few books. We sang "Hail Mary, Gentle Woman" and "Jingle Bells". He said, "all done" and asked to be put into bed. He asked for a "blanket, please". He went right to sleep. Sometimes he does and sometimes he doesn't, but we were so happy that tonight was a sleepy night.

Iris slept late from that earlier nap, so she was wide awake. She crawled right over to me. Tom caught up on the computer, then washed the dishes. Iris laughed and laughed when he sang his special Iris song for her. It is all about her Tonguey Smile! We love her tonguey smile.

Then Tom went to bed, Iris finally fell asleep and I wrote this. I'm tired, but satisfied. Tom is probably already asleep - or tossing and turning because I'm not there.

It was a pretty wonderful day, I wanted to have it down for memory's sake. Since you read this far, I'll give you a cute little photo of the kids.

Clark wants a bow too.

Clark maybe loves his sister a little too much

CUTIES!

It isn't all happy times...

2011-07-04T07:36:00.000-07:00

But I love it when it is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

please don't distribute this last one widely. =)

Iris's baptism

2011-07-04T07:27:00.000-07:00

Iris was welcomed into the Catholic Church on June 18, 2011. Her Godparents are Annie and Mike McHugh. Tom's parents came in town for it and we had a good crowd of friend join us!

Dance Party

2011-07-04T07:22:00.000-07:00

Iris is amazing, and so is her daddy!

New Iris photos

2011-06-16T15:38:00.000-07:00

I got my friend Rachel Garay to take more photos of Iris. I picked a few to use in marketing materials for Happy Healthy Birth. She is beautiful, pleasant, and has a tonguey smile. She is a real joy and gift to us. She is 5 months and just started sitting up. She is incredible. She will be baptized this weekend. Please keep her in your prayers to become a Holy, just and chaste woman of God.

The one above is one of my favorites. She is so beautiful in it.

Videos of life - and a picture.

2011-05-22T10:11:00.000-07:00

When I think of my life's goals. This is what I always hoped I could acheive. A Sunday afternoon in the backyard. A blanket under a tree with a cute baby on it. A wonderful husband. A naked little kid runing around the yard, splashing in the pool. A garden. Shade. Warm sun. Laughter. Discovery. A family who loves each other and wants to spend time together.

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Our new internet is twice as fast as our old internet, officially. What I see here is that it takes me less than minutes to upload these videos while our old interent used to take hours - and then maybe it would work. YAY for FioS!

Clark Swinging

Iris being cute.

Easter Egg Hunt

Clark and Owen running around a tree at the zoo.

On Mondays in the winter we went to this gym and played.

We got faster internet and everyone wins!

2011-05-22T09:46:00.000-07:00

We went to a birthday party yesterday and there were princesses!

Some pictures from our garden. Our dogwood tree:

Little tiny flowers on the asparagus plant.

Some other beautiful flowers - Iris, the dogwood and ME!

Clark remains CRAZY about Iris. He loves her so much. He wants her to do everything with him. He insisted I put her in the firetruck with him.

One day I stumbled upon Iris, who was having some air time on her bottom, with a remote control in her hand and the choo-choo train nearby. Clark had wanted her to share in his awesome remote control Thomas train.

I bet he can't wait until she's up and walking! Then they can really play!

He does get a little jealous when I give her his toys however. I gave her the music thing that he is playing with in the picture above and he didn't like it. When I try to give her other things he sometimes freaks out for a minute. For the most part, however, I will find her with a toy placed on her tummy - a sweet present from Clark.

more princesses from the party!

15 weeks and 2 - eek!

2011-04-23T12:06:00.000-07:00

Iris is getting so big! She is 15 weeks old now. She can kind of early sit with assistance, she has rolled a few times from back to front, she's got great head control, she can grab an object with 2 hands, she smiles, coos, laughs, she loves holding her feet, and she works out by kicking and bicycling almost non-stop every day. She is awesome. Her fat skin is delicious, she has the most beautiful fat rolls and fat dimples. You can just see her healthy fat glow, and smell her incredible milky fatness when you nuzzle in close.

We are finally settling into having 2 children. For a while, it was somewhat overwhelming. Our beloved 2 year old is quite "2". He is a handful, and armful, a room full and a house full. He is pretty awesome, but still quite a lot of work. As an example, we thought he was "taking a nap" today in his room. We heard thunking around, but assumed it was him hauling trucks into his bed. When we finally went in there. This is what we found.

He had hauled his vacuum, a wipes container and a bottle of lotion into bed, opened the lotion, spread it all over himself and kept saying, "broken, broken" because he couldn't figure out how to get the blue nozzle part back into the bottle.
We thought it was pretty hilarious, but tried not to reinforce it. This kid LOVES it when he finds something funny that makes us laugh. We have to be careful with him!

The good news about Clark is that he is turning into a big helper. He loves to do the things that we are doing. Here he is helping me vacuum.
He also adores his sister. He seriously adores her. This is why we were so eager to make another little one so soon, Clark has SO much love to give. He LOVE, LOVE, LOVES her. He is always eager to rock her in the swing, show her his toys, and he will run to her when I have the camera out and say "cheese!". Here, he is showing you her ear.

He loves to read with her!
Green Eggs and Ham is one of his favorite books. He can "read" some of it with me. He is so cute when he reads the line, "Would you like them here or there" I say the first part, and he says "here or there" and he points left and right. He loves how it ends when Sam-I-am finally says, "try them, try them and you'll see" and the guy trys them and then the guy says "Thank you thank you Sam-I-Am." While it is a long bed time read compared to "Brown Bear" or one of the other kids books we have, reading it to him is such a pleasure.
Here is Clark cuddled up with Iris for a photo.And another one. Don't they look so much alike? It is pretty nuts!

Here's one from last month with Tom and the kids, they look so much like him too!
And to end your day with happy sunshine. Our little flower!

Pictures finally!

2011-04-04T13:34:00.000-07:00

I tried to load some photos using Firefox instead of Explorer and it worked! This is Clark and Bernadette enjoying some yummy gluten free chocolate cupcakes. I found him a birthday candle (kind of) like the one my brother had when we were growing up. You light it each year and let the candle burn down to the age. I got one for Iris too!
Here are Clark and his cousin, Jordan, having fun at the Postal Museum! It was awesome to have her here! Jo-jo, we miss you already!
Here is Clark and his new bestie - Owen Farmer.

Here am I with my babies at the Nature center.
Here's Tom with the kids. Clark loves to hold Iris. He is a wonderful big brother!

Attention! Awesome new kids blog!

2011-04-02T13:25:00.000-07:00

My awesome 9 year old nephew made a blog called Kids News Post. He is going put up the coolest news stories of the week. There is going to be a hand drawing for each month. Check out the link to view his blog and follow him or subscribe to get updates! Please spread the word!

church blog

2011-03-30T16:47:00.001-07:00

I've had the opportunity to write for a women's blog for our church. We are really growing the Women's and Mother's ministries at our parish! You can access the general blog here.
The post I wrote is here.

We hope you read it and share it with other women and mothers.

I hope to contribute more, when time permits. I'll let you know when I do!

Laughter is the best .... when it is from a 2 year old.

2011-03-29T16:10:00.001-07:00

Clark has a very funny sense of humor. His favorite joke right now is pretending to sleep. He will put his head down and close his eyes. Then he'll spring up and say "WAKE!" He will also put food on a fork, lay the fork down and say, "sleeping!" and then lift it and say "awake" He does it with animal crackers, upright they are "awake" and he'll lay them down and shout "sleeping" He thinks it is hilarious. His other favorite joke right now is fake choking. That's every mother's favorite thing right? Geeze. The kid will take a big bite of food and make a choking noise. I'll react appropriately towards my choking son. He will then shout "faking!" Which is what I said incredulously the first time he did it. "You were faking?!?!?!" The main problem with his "faking" is that he now also chokes more often. He is really cramming food in his mouth nowadays. I see other kids his age doing it, so maybe it is a developmental milestone. The kids that have good enough supervision survive to reach the age of 3, right? Today we watched The Jungle Book. This kid thought it was the funniest movie of all time. He laughed so much at it. I know Baloo is funny, but that's not what he loved the most. He loooooovveeed the snake! He thought every scene with the snake was hilarious! Notice how this picture loaded, but none of our family pictures will. I'd fire Google, but I already have this blog established.

March updates about everything.

2011-03-25T14:19:00.000-07:00

I'm really busy lately, so much so that I'm really sad I'm not keeping this blog up to date. I feel bad that Iris won't have as good a history written out for her infancy. We are benefiting from the history though, and take glimpses back at what Clark was doing at this age. I was invited to write for our church's women's group's blog (English teachers, Do I need all of those apostrophies?). It is http://womenofstraphael.blogspot.com/ if you'd like to check it out. I don't have that much time to post there either, but I did get one in a few days ago.

I have been having a hard couple of weeks adjusting to having these two kids. It was hard to admit while it was hard. Now I feel better, and I almost can't stop talking about it. It makes me feel better to share, I guess. I've been focusing on eating well, getting sleep when I can, and on Clark when he is awake. He is a very independant boy, but he is at a critical developmental point right now and he needs lots of guidance. Every few months I realize my old parenting tricks won't work anymore. I need to develop a new skill set. I have probably needed to develop this new set for a while, but with the baby and the pregnancy, it has fallen by the wayside. I was being lazy, and everyone said it was ok, but now I need to step up and be the parent he needs me to be. Realizing this has helped me.

We have also been given the gift of a free night. Tom's best friend from high school, Mike Farmer, moved up here in September. We have been spending a lot of time with their family, wife Kathryn, and son Owen. The Farmers (Kathryn) have taken Clark for the night. I had a free afternoon. Tom will be home and we will have a free evening, a sleep in morning, and pick Clark up when we feel like it on Saturday. I am already so relaxed. Having two kids is way harder than one! Even though Iris is as easy as Clark was at this age (see paragraph above) Clark is a challenge for us right now. Plus, he is exhausting, and we aren't getting as much sleep. It is hard to see yourself less loving and patient then you know you COULD be if you just had a little more rest.

Another help for us has been a Mother's Helper. I sent an add out in our neighborhood list serv. I got an 11 year old girl to come over to our house and clean up. She picked up toys and socks and unloaded the dishwasher. It was amazing. Our house looks beautiful. She was just here for an hour, and I paid her $5. Now our house is tidy, and I didn't have to do it for once. She will be coming once or twice a week to help out. She will help tidy, and also play with Clark so I can get some Brio Birth work done, blog, or take a nap! She just came once and I love her already.

On the Iris front, she is fat and happy. She had her 2 month check up and she looks great. She is above the curve for height and weight, just over 14lbs already! She has a spitup/gagging/projectile vomiting problem, but it isn't affecting/effecting (English teachers?) her growth (14lbs!) so it isn't a big deal. I just feel bad for her when she is so visibly uncomfortable, and then I'm covered in spitup. Its a lifestyle issue, not a health issue. I have elminated gluten and dairy and caffiene from my diet (but not chocolate!!! They'll never take my chocolate!!!). and it helps A LOT, but she still has periodic issues.

Clark is happy, healthy, vibrant, energetic. He loves colors, counting, the ABCs, songs, books, trucks, cars, airplanes, helicopters, balls, etc. In some books and for some songs, if I leave out words he can now add them in. He is at a really fun, and also challenging age. Me and some friends are going to start a co-op preschool. We are going to start in a few weeks. We are just going to meet once a week - but we are excited about it. It is a fun experiment. We were thinking of putting him in a sports camp this spring/summer - but with everything else going on, we are busy enough. This fall he might play "magnet ball" (toddler soccer) with his friend Will Clark.

Tom is happy. He got an ipad (Thanks Ray!) and will be "facetime" chatting with family members soon. He is in Physical Therapy for his back, and it seems to be helping. He has had lots of back problems in the past 4 years due to a very tiny fender bender which totally messed his back up. He had been going to the chiropractor, but with our new insurance the PT was cheaper, and they do some adjusting too. He has another publication coming out sometime in the near future. It is the last paper he will be on from his heroin days. When it is published, maybe we can post a link here. He is flying RC helicopters frequently, mostly at the request of Clarkiekins.

I just started running again, and plan on getting a double jogging stroller in the next couple of weeks. It is Springtime, and that means running. It makes me feel so good, I'm excited to be out moving my body again. I will also start teaching my new Brio Birth classes soon. I have one couple due in May. I am doing a private class with them and I hope I can help them have a really good birth experience. It will also give me a chance to review the new curriculum. It is really, really good. Even more exciting, Iris and I are featured in the workbook. There are two pictures of us nursing in it. It is really exciting to be in the book, and to also have this incredible new curriculum that just blows what I had been teaching right out of the water. I have many pregnant friends right now, and I'm glad to be sharing it with them too. I hope I can start attending births as a doula whenever Iris is a little bit older.

My cousin Jordan was here last week. We did some fun stuff in the city and hung out around the house. As I mentioned last year, she is the best house guest. I have figured out why. She doesn't mind lounging around our house and being lazy (unlike our mothers who always have to be busy) and she is highly competent in childcare and she doesn't mind it when I boss her around. So if you would like to be a good house guest for us, please take my orders, play with Clark when I'm not bossing you around, and in the rest of your time sit around and do nothing and enjoy it! no, no, no. please be yourself, but these are the reasons we really love it when Jordan comes to visit! She's the best!

Our future looks bright. We have upcoming visits from Tom's bestie Ian, and his beautiful wife, Kelly. Then I am some one's sponsor for confirmation at the Easter Vigil. Then we are going to Ft. Lauderdale for a BEACH (conference) VACATION! We have a visit from the lovely Monica Janzen, and then Tom's parents will be here in mid-June for a conference and for Iris's (English teachers??) baptism June 19th. All are welcome to join us for the baptism!

Happy Birthday Clark!

2011-03-17T16:45:00.000-07:00

Clark is 2 now. We invited a slew of people, but then Clark got sick. He had a cough and runny nose. So, being good friends, we called all the invitees and told them about his illness. A few friends stayed home and a few of our working moms came without their kids, since they didn't want to keep their kids out of daycare if they got sick. Although we missed some of Clark's friends and photo ops, it cut down on the crowd inside our home and worked out quite well. In the future we might try to have birthday parties at another location so we can fit more people in our home. We made gluten free cupcakes and had a taco bar. Since it was a few weeks ago, I don't really remember anything else. It was fun though, and a good time was had by all.
I don't know why the picture uploader isn't working, but it makes me not want to blog as often. I'm sorry. At some point, I will try to upload photos from the event.

Damn you, gluten!!!! GRRRRR

2011-02-21T19:00:00.000-08:00

About the time I fully weaned Clark, he developed a persistent diaper rash that wouldn't go away no matter what we did. This was in October. He still has the rash.
We tried every kind of ointment, salve, and cream. We also did a huge strip of our cloth diapers, washing them profusely, boiling them in hot water to rid them of potential yeasts or infections. The rash persisted. We switched to disposables, yet nothing changed.

In addition to the diaper rash, he had a rash on his face as well that would never fully clear up.

At some point we thought it might be a food allergy. We began eliminating foods from his diet one at a time to see if there was a difference. Raisins, apple sauce, eggs, cheese, rice. I mean, there weren't that many things he actually ate!!! (or still eats for that matter!)

A phone call to Nana revealed that Aunt Monica (Tom's sister) had had a wheat allergy when she was a kid (which resolved by about 5 years old). Our swimming instructor mentioned that wheat might be an issue, and another friend brought up an allergy to wheat as a culprit for this type of thing.

As much as I didn't want to eliminate it, we had tried everything else and the face and the bottom were still bright red. We stared with goldfish, the toddler staple food.

As soon as we eliminated them, Clark's bright red cheeks began to return to his normal pale white. Then we looked for other wheat products: breads, cereals and crackers, gone. His face almost completely cleared up, but still his bottom was red, and he wasn't completely face-healed either.

We learned that it isn't just wheat - but gluten that is the problem and gluten is EVERYWHERE! Not only is it in obvious things like products made with wheat (breads, cereal, crackers), it is used as thicker in soups, starches in box mixes for foods (Jambalaya mix, for example), it is used as an anti-coagulant in spices. Also, if a factory processes something like wheat crackers and then a gluten-free product like rice-crackers are run on the same conveyor belt, then they become cross contaminated and can make a gluten sensitive person sick. It is in oats, wheat, bran, barley, rye... It is a pain in the a$$, for real.

The thing is, the more we eliminate it, the more his bottom heals. Since October, he has never been 100% rash free. Even when it is flesh colored, there are still bumps. Every time we get close to having a healed baby bottom, we will find yet another source of hidden gluten.

We went to McDonald’s (horribly, unhealthy choice, I know) and I ordered Clark a plain hamburger patty and french fries. He got a rash. Oh, they add a whole bunch of junk to the meat - and one of the junks they add is a wheat based filler to keep it chewy. Oh, and the french fries are fried in the same oil as onion rings and chicken patties and other stuff with breading.

So we have been sticking to home, but still, we find sources of Gluten to poison our little boy. When we get together with friends, Clark will eat cheerios off of the floor, or get a goldfish from a friend. Parents will hand him muffins or other foods before I can tell them that he has an allergy. Part of this is my fault, as I've always been very relaxed about his eating - happy that he would eat anything - so people know that I (used to ) don't have limits.

It is like he needs a shirt or hat or bracelet to wear when we go out that reads:

So, we try to be hyper vigilant and keeping him home helps. But we've found that playing with play dough, even with careful hand washing afterward, may be giving him problems as well.

In addition to Clark, Iris may be presenting with a gluten sensitivity. She began spitting up profusely a few weeks ago. I mentioned it to a friend who asked if Clark had done the same thing. "Clark spit up like crazy," I answered, "but he had an allergy"

Well, I wasn't fully convinced, nor committed for about a week. However, every time she struggled after nursing and then spit up I thought about it. The morning of Superbowl Sunday, I committed. Since then, I've been on a gluten-free diet as well. Luckily I know a lot more than I did when I started Clark on it. We also have a pantry stocked with G-free items (as well as gobs of gluten-full items that Tom will have to eat, or we'll have to donate). So it hasn't been as hard as I though.

Iris's spit ups have been minimal throughout this time, but I wasn't sure if it was a coincidence or the gluten. Today I did a gluten-challenge. I had wheat cereal for breakfast. A hamburger on a bun with onion rings (from TGIFriday's, not McDonald’s) for lunch, and more cereal later, and a chocolate croissant.

Tom and I were having a conversation at about 9pm. I said that she hadn't spit up, so maybe it wasn't gluten. I was optimistically thinking of clearing out some of the glutenous objects in our freezer and pantry. Tom did say that we should give it another day to confirm, since it could take awhile for my body to break it down and make milk with gluten in it. About 30 minutes later precious, beautiful baby Iris confirmed the worst. In a violent upchuck that fully soaked a thick, absorbent burp cloth, my shirt, and 1/4 of the boppy we were using, I realized that NO, I would not be eating those gluten items in the pantry. So for the next year at least, it looks like I'm gluten free too.

The good thing about this is that it is easier to keep Clark safe if we are eating the same things. I'm also learning more about being gluten free, and learning more food options as I eat a wider variety of things than Clark does. I, for example, learned that if I want a fast food hamburger - Wendy's has gluten free burgers since their burgers are ALL MEAT, and some stores have a dedicated fryer for french fries, but I have to check by location. Also, frosty's are g-free. yay!

Having some friends that are G-free has really helped, and I found this incredibly helpful yet terrifying book by Elizabeth Hasselbeck called the "G-free Survival Guide". It is really opening my eyes, and if I read too much of it, I'm too afraid to buy anything to eat, or put on lotion or makeup or shampoo my hair (sexy, I know, but easy for a new-mom to forsake).

Tom is thinking of joining us, but he might have to wait until he clears out our pantry and freezer.

In conclusion, gluten sucks, and it is everywhere, and it is making my kids sick. =P

Children learn what they live

2011-02-15T11:05:00.001-08:00

We've had a very ill winter so far. Clark found this nasal aspirator today. He brought it to Iris and proceeded to "suck" her nose while shouting "nose, nose". What a good big brother.

LMNOP

2011-02-15T08:32:00.000-08:00

almost 6 week update.

2011-02-14T08:45:00.002-08:00

Iris is cool. She is still the sleepiest baby I've ever had. She wakes up from about 9-10 am and again from 8pm-11:30ish. She has a few other wakeful times in the day and night to nurse and get changed, but mostly sleeps. When she is awake she enjoys looking around and when she sees a familiar face, she smiles. Her smile is wonderful to behold, because it is a smile of recognition and baby love, of appreciation and joy. She sucks on her hands and recently has been enjoying her bouncy chair. We have tried putting her in the floor gym and some tummy time, but she doesn't like those things so far.

One thing I've noticed about her is that she seems somewhat anxious sometimes. But, if you hold her hand or make eye contact, you can see in her eyes a big sigh of relief. I can see her settle into a thought that is like, "I'm gonna be ok now, I'm with this lady, and it's gonna be ok." Even when I am holding her, I've noticed that she likes to be cradled closely, and not held with two hands behind the head and bottom. She likes to be close and secure. Interestingly enough, she doesn't like being swaddled - which is contrary to Clark who was very secure and independent from the get go, but desperately needed it to relax and fall asleep...

I actually want to do a post that compares them and my experience with them so far. I know you aren't supposed to do that, but I want to remember their differences and similarities, so I'm going to anyway. Hopefully it won't bite me in the butt 30 years from now when they are in therapy! haha!

Iris also has full blown baby acne. I've never seen something as beautiful as our little girl, that is simultaneously a hideous mess. I hope it clears up soon! eek!

Iris firsts: our local kid gym, the National Zoo, the Building Museum, and the Botanical Gardens. She pretty much slept through all of them, but she's been there!

Clark is wonderful. He has blossomed and grown so much in the past month. Even his grandma, papa, and nana would be impressed - and they were all here in the last 2 months.

Clark can count to 4, and when you count with him, he knows 9 comes after 8 - but can't get to 8 quite yet!

Clark can recognize some of the letters of the alphabet and is obsessed with it right now. He can't do the song, but points at the letters on things (newspapers, boxes, Iris's clothing) and guesses what they are. We hung the alphabet up in his room, but he ripped half of it down already. Yes, it was the half above his bed. =)

Clark is a pretty good communicator and wants to talk a lot now. He even picked up the phone and tried to call Nana yesterday, and then he tried to call Papa. He loves books and is joining in the stories by "reading" the picture at the appropriate spot. We do this mostly with Green Eggs and Ham where Clark contributes the "house, mouse, car, tree, train, boat" parts of the line. He is learning emotions, some from all of the winter/sick/pregnancy/newborn TV we've been watching, and some from his sister. He can identify crying and when people are being naughty. Additionally, he has sympathy for dying people on TV. What a sweet boy. (note: we definitely plan on cutting out the TV when we aren't trapped inside hiding from the cold, or dealing with illness - this has been the sickest winter ever =( boooo )

Even with all of the TV watching he's been doing - he doesn't seem like a boob quite yet. He has learned so much the last few months, and has a great imagination and sense of fun. Here he is playing in the house that his Aunts and Uncles Greenwell bought for him. (well, they got the car seats that came in the box for Iris, but Clark loves his house!)

We are working on planning his second birthday party and are amazed at how much he's grown - and how much he WILL grow. One day he will be taller than us, smarter than us, and hey, he's already better looking. =)

I'm getting ready to start teaching again in late March. I will be teaching the new childbirth method called "Brio" (http://www.briobirth.com/). I'm going to a training for it in early March. The training will go over the method, but also how to be a better teacher, and how to better run my business. I've made a website to help me out http://www.happyhealthybirth.webs.com/ if you'd like to check it out.

I'm also planning on working at the spring retreat for our youth group in April. I'm trying to talk Tom into joining us - either as a leader, or just by coming along. The kids really love hanging out with Clark and think he is super fun. They also like Tom. Tom was a great chaperone for the youth ski trip a few weeks ago. Iris will be going either way.

That's it. Keep us in your prayers as we fight to overcome winter illness, boredom and sloth. Wishing you the best, and a life FULL of love! Happy Valentine's Day!

Clark's last day as an only child.

2011-01-26T11:22:00.000-08:00

So, I think I need to turn my phone the other way, but alas, next time I'll have to do it. This time I already blew it. (hey, a poem!)

This is footage I took on January 6th around lunchtime. Clark and I took a long walk to get some fresh air and to see if I was in labor or not. There are things I really want to remember in my life - and one thing I really love is the light in winter. I love Clark as a toddler. I love how fast he runs and how joyous he is. These little videos aren't really "interesting" but they make my heart happy - so I'm sharing them.

I wish I had filmed that one a few seconds longer. Right after I turned the camera off, he turned around and said, "Let's Go!"

This was later on that same walk. He really likes running over the bridge. I love the sound his feet and the metal make. Sometimes we throw things into the river and watch them float away. (Don't I have the most awesome life?)

3 weeks and counting

2011-01-26T10:31:00.000-08:00

Well, we've made it to 3 weeks of Iris. yay! (this is yawning, not crying. =) )

We are doing remarkably well, almost entirely due to the incredible care given to us by our mothers. My mom was here for 10 days,

we had one day off (eek!) and Tom's mom has been here for another 10 days. She is leaving tomorrow afternoon and then we'll see how we survive! another eek!

We have had lots of visits from friends, and lots of cold weather keeping us indoors. This is Brian and Will Clark with Clark. Will is a few days younger than Clark and loves saying "cheese!" for the camera!

Clark remains an excellent little boy, he is doing very, very well with Iris.

He is pretty gentle with her, and will even entertain her when I ask him too. He will show her his trucks and point out things in books for her.

He is really sweet with her. I'm so happy that both of them have a sibling. I keep thinking I have a "Stephen and Veronica" (like me and my brother) and that makes me really, really happy. Clark continues to find ways to incorporate her into the family life. The other day he gave her a "hat" =)

What are Iris's firsts now? She has been to the Croydon Creek Nature center 2 times already, once with both grand mother. She has been to two Italian, one Indian, and one Chinese resturants. She has been to Mass twice, a talk on Theology of the Body, and a volunteer "thank you" banquet at our Church. Iris got her first bath at 2.5 weeks and she has now been to Costco. I'd say she has had a pretty eventful life so far. =)

Our beautiful little girl.

2011-01-15T11:25:00.000-08:00

a real live 3 day old Iris.

2011-01-09T15:54:00.000-08:00

Iris and Clark. =) He is pretty good with her so far! yay!

Iris's birth

2011-01-08T13:52:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday night, 1/5/11. I began having some contractions. No wait. I had contractions almost every evening since I was about 36 weeks. Mostly they were delicate and tiny, rhythmic and subtle. I noticed them because I have chronic Braxton-Hicks starting around 20 weeks (in both pregnancies) and knew these were different. I didn't really pay attention, because they typically went away when I fell asleep and in the morning they were gone.

On Wednesday night, I was 41 weeks, pretty much done with the pregnancy and ready to have the baby. In the middle of the night, the regular evening contractions didn't go away, but didn't really keep me up. I dreamt about labor, and sometimes woke up because of them. They were all about 40 seconds long though, and not that powerful, 10 minutes apart. They were somewhat there the next morning, 1/6/2011, but Tom wanted to go to work for some meetings. I resolved to take it easy, keep hydrated, and fuel up so that they could do what they wanted. At about 10am, I decided to take a walk to see if they would get stronger or go away. The walk turned them into an hour long Braxton-Hicks contraction. I wasn't surprised, but somewhat disappointed. Clark (my 22 month old toddler) and I went out to eat for lunch – Indian Food. Lots of good vegetables, iron, carbohydrates, and spices. The contractions came back in the restaurant, strong enough for me to notice, close my eyes and focus on them. Still 40 seconds/10 min apart. The waitress smiled at me, knowing what was happening. Clark ate two bowls of rice and two bowls of cantaloupe.

I called the midwife then to see if I should do anything to accelerate this labor, or make it stop. We decided a bath, beer and nap would be good. I laid down for my nap, and fell asleep, but the contractions pulled me out of sleep. They were still 10 min/40 sec, but I felt them deep within me. After we woke up from nap time, we watched Dora the Explorer. Through one contraction, I put my head down and breathed deeply as my pelvis filled with the strength of it – Clark was frustrated at me because Dora was still loading. I realized at that point that I would never have the baby if I had to take care of Clark. The contractions were strong, but short, and I knew things were holding me back.

I called my mom in Louisiana who was flying in the next day, I told her to give me permission to have the baby even if she wasn't there, she did. It was 3:30. I called Tom at work and told him to come home. He was home in 30 minutes. I wanted to just drop Clark off and go to the birth center. But first we had dinner, remembering the 26 hours we spent laboring exhaustedly with Clark. We went and had Vietnamese Noodle Soup – Pho containing fluids, electrolytes, carbs and irony beef. In the restaurant, my contractions got stronger, 40-60 seconds, 5-8 minutes apart. I knew that we were doing the right thing. A lady in the restaurant caught on to what was going on with us and she said that she wished she had eaten before going to the hospital too. After dinner, we called the midwife and our birth assistant/doula. We said that we were coming to the birth center. We were ready. It was 6:30pm.

As we drove to Alexandria, Va (normally ~ 40 minutes, but more during rush hour) we were pleased about the lack of traffic. My contractions spaced out again, lessened in intensity, and shortened. We dropped Clark off at our friend's house about a mile from the birth center. I hung out in their house for about 30 minutes, feeling lame because everything appeared to be stopping.

We continued on to the birth center, and when I got there, I told everyone “sorry if my labor stopped” but they said it was “ok. We plan on being here all night” It was 7:30.

They checked me at that time and were surprised to see I was 5cm dilated already. My midwife said all we needed to do was get the baby to turn (she was still OP) and she would descend and that would take care of it. We got into the big jacuzzi tub and focused on getting the baby to turn and descend.

Apparently all I needed to do was relax, get my birth team in place, make sure Clark was taken care of, and enter into this labor to give it the attention it needed. It took Tom and I a little while to figure out how to position ourselves in the tub and establish a ritual for each contraction. After we did, the contractions took off like crazy. Each one was power, power, powerful down to my pelvis. I tried to think about the baby moving down and could feel the descent from the top of my belly. On my hands and knees in the water, I leaned into Tom's lap or chest or tummy for each contraction and he blew on my back to help cool me off.

It was quite a fun time between contractions. In between each contraction we repositioned, laughed a little bit and did nipple stimulation to increase the intensity of the contractions (this releases oxytocin, a natural form of pitocin used in hospitals). My midwife said that she didn't want to see me so happy, that I needed to get snappy so we would know the baby was coming. However, my doula said I was pretty serious during the contractions and that is what really mattered. We had an extra doula there (a trainee) and she said we were a really fun laboring couple.

At one point I checked myself and felt the baby's head encased in the bag of waters at my third knuckle. I knew it was going to happen soon. Within an hour and a half of entering the tub, I was no longer doing my low throated moaning, I was roaring. I told Tom I was in transition and wished I had been counting the contractions (it is usually about 20) so I knew how long it would be. It was a silly thought as I could feel the baby moving closer and closer to the exit. The head was at my second knuckle. I felt the contractions ripping apart my sacrum from the rest of the pelvis. Tom pressed on my sacrum for some counter pressure. All of a sudden I wasn't roaring, I was pushing. There was no thought. I was the first woman giving birth. I didn't need any knowledge or coaching – except to breath because it was so overwhelming and amazing.

No. Maybe I did need coaching, My midwife ran in when she heard the sound of me pushing. She said “drain the tub” I wasn't planning on having a water birth and didn't want one because with Clark I had had a hemorrhage and knew I might need some special attention after this birth. She also kept telling me to breath and push slowly, gently. The power of my body was so incredible that I was just yielding to it – doing what it told me. But I also tried to do what she told me. I slowly climbed out of the tub and told them I wasn't going to the other room. I stood at the side of the tub gripping the edge as our baby's head emerged from my body. It was so overwhelming, There was a pause between head and body emerging. I think after all of that sensation and how quickly it was going, I just needed to rest and breathe and pause. I knelt on the floor so I could catch the body. The body was born.

I held the baby, our baby, to me. The labor was over. Tom knelt at my side and we looked between the legs and saw that we had a girl, a daughter. I was amazed at how covered in vernix she was. She looked like she could have stayed in there for another month! It was 10:08pm.

We slowly walked back to the room where we “should have” given birth (although it is totally fine that we did it in the bathroom). Our daughter began nursing. The placenta came shortly after.. We named her Iris Margaret Greenwell.

I couldn't stop talking about how amazing the birth was, how powerful, how visceral, how incredible. Within 40 minutes I was telling Tom that we were gonna have to do it again. Tom told his mom that, and she said, "most women like to wait at least a month"

The midwife and team took my vitals and Iris' vitals a few times, I ate, had a shower, and we took a photo. Then we left the birth center at about 1am and headed home to sleep. The adrenaline of the night took Tom by surprise and he was more restless than a newborn baby! I was ready to sleep after missing my regular nap and staying up so late, but Tom and I realized that it was already 1/7/2011, our 5 year wedding anniversary. Tom presented me with a beautiful necklace to commemorate everything that had happened. We laughed, we prayed, I sang, we fawned affection. The birth was amazing, our daughter is amazing, and we did amazing. We couldn't have done it without each other.

The next day around lunchtime, our friend dropped Clark off. He came upstairs, climbed into bed and gave his baby a hug, a kiss and said, “Hat! Hat!” he was excited about his baby finally being an outside baby. So are we.

Due Date

2010-12-29T16:22:00.001-08:00

Hi.

We had a very lovely Christmas this year. A few days before it, my dad decided to drive up from Louisiana and hang out with us. It has been a really nice and relaxing visit.

We had dinner Christmas Eve and Christmas with the Farmer family (Mike, Kathryn, and Owen - plus Mike's parents and brother and his wife). Clark had fun playing with Owen and the adults had fun being adults.

Tom and I went to mass on Christmas morning and the next day (a Sunday) ALL BY OURSELVES while dad watched Clark. This may have been the very best gift of Clark's whole life. It was wonderful to sit and hold Tom's hand and relax and listen and pray and NOT have to think about keeping Clark quiet via toys/snacks/"look at the music" bla bla bla. It was wonderful.

Clark really enjoyed opening presents this year and caught onto removing the wrapping paper pretty quickly. It was precious to watch!

Many of the days dad has been here have been low lying days as I was sick for the first part of this trip, Clark was sick for the middle and now Tom is sick for the end. Are we suprised that dad started feeling ill yesterday morning? No. We are not.

Today is the expected due date of little baby Joy, and again, we are not suprised that s/he is not here yet. Dad was hoping he could be around for the birth - but I think he's realized by now it might not happen for another week or so. We have had some fun discussions about birth and medicine in this country and I got him to watch The Business of Being Born to prep him for the birth and why we've made the decisions we have about the childbirth process.

He accompanied me to our midwife appointment yesterday. We listened to the heartbeat, had a nice belly measurement (39 cm) and tried not to cough on her stuff. We found out that the baby is in an OP position, meaning back labor and a sunny-side up delivery. I'm hoping Joy turns, because that kind of labor is going to suck a lot. It will help me be a better childbirth teacher and doula one day, but still, I'd rather skip it if I can. Besides this information, it was a nice visit. Next Wednesday I'm looking forward to having a Non-Stress Test where you lay there and let the External Fetal Monitor measure baby movements. I'm also going to have an ultrasound called an AFI where they measure your amniotic fluid. We are determined NOT to find out the sex of the baby at this ultrasound, as we have waited this long, we'd rather experienc the "surpise" that other people say is "so great!" and we'll let everyone know what we think is better.

It would obviously be ideal to have the baby BEFORE this appointment, but we'll see if that happens. I've got a baby pool going over on my facebook page. It is in the notes section if you are looking for it.

It sounds like dad is leaving tomorrow morning, and I hope he gets home before he hits the worst day of the cold. It would be better to spend that day at home and in bed than driving 17 hours back to Louisiana.

Over all it has been a nice couple of weeks and we are looking forward to 1. being healthy and 2. having our baby soon. We are looking forward to 3. Mom's visit on January 7th and 5. our 5th wedding anniversary on that same day.

As you can see we have lots to look forward to and are happy about life right now. I feel so calm and relaxed, especially compared to how I felt on Clark's due date (read: STRESSSSSSSSSSSS) It has been a much nicer journey and I don't plan on being stressed at least until next week.

Wishing everyone the best, many prayers and lots of happiness in the new year.

Love, Veronica

Sideways blocks

2010-12-12T05:55:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone. These were the first videos I took with my phone. I took them one way, have no clue how to turn them. In the future, I'll just try to take them from another angle. So, turn your head and watch Clark playing with blocks. He is using his favorite word of that day, "one". And every time he notices that I'm filming, he runs over to "see" what I'm doing.

He puts blocks into his dump truck.

He carefully works on the tower of blocks.

He knocks the tower over.

Ball Pit

2010-12-12T05:46:00.000-08:00

Clark and his friend Owen played in a fun indoor playground earlier this week. I took some video from my phone and we'll see how it comes across on the blog. It would be super sweet if I could load these straight from my phone like I do with pictures quite often, but since they are so short, they do load quickly from the computer.

Clark loves fun.

2010-12-07T14:07:00.000-08:00

Clark loves reading. He could read almost the whole day. We are thrilled that this intellectual development has coincided with cold weather and the impending birth of Joy. Clark loves the slide. He is sitting on my lap as I type this shouting "weeee" and pointing at the picture of him on the slide.

He's having fun in the playground.

And eating some snacks in the playground. We think he might be allergic to wheat, so have eliminated it from his diet. In response, he started eating chicken, meat, and dairy. Amazing.

Clark loves the swings! Fr. RB came to visit and took these pictures of us in the park. We all went out to eat, but we didn't take any pictures of all 4 (5) of us. booo. next time we will have to do better!!! but, I admit, it is nice to actually BE in some of the blog photos!

blurry swinging.

before the pushing began. I think he is looking at some bigger kids swinging on the tire swing towards the left.

2010-11-28T17:11:00.000-08:00

Look! I'm pregnant. Here's a picture of me that I took many weeks ago and posted to facebook. BUT, I finally got the picture loader to work here again, so I'm posting it for good record keeping. In this picture, I'm 32 1/2 weeks.

We had a wonderful and relaxing Thanksgiving in Virginia with the Farmer family. Mike Farmer is Tom's best friend from High School, and he moved to Alexandria, Va in late August with his wonderfully amazing wife, Kathryn and their son (4 months younger than Clark) Owen. Owen and Clark are a hoot when they get together. They can play together quietly/actively for hours, just interrupting my and Kathryn's hours long coffee break for food, water, diaper changes, and naps. They are great together. =)

Kathryn and I are becoming fast friends, I have been to Alexandria every other week for the past few months for my midwife appointments. This week I go to every week! I'm 36 weeks! Hurrah!

The wonderful thing about this pregnancy is that everytime I think I'm going into labor (regular contractions, close together) I know that it doesn't matter and I should just ignore it until it turns into a big deal. It's already happened a few times, but I was so stressed with Clark because I always thought it was time. uggh. It's nice to be slightly more relaxed about it.

This weekend Tom and I finished our big "to do" list for the birth and got supplies ready in the van including changes of clothes for us all and birth plans printed. It is very satisfying to know that that part is done.

Another momentous occassion occured this weekend. Tom cut Clark's hair for the first time. Tom has been excited about this moment since we conceived little Gumbo three whole summers ago, and it finally arrived. Clark's hair wasn't too long, just hanging over his ears a little bit, and somewhat mudflappy in the back. So, ears and mudflap got trimmed, and we saved the tiny clippings in a plastic ziplock baggie. Clark was pretty good throughout the whole thing, and Tom thinks he looks more mature now. =)

Clark is pretty fabulous, but pretty exhausting at this age. He is really picking up on our words and actions, and there is NO hiding anything from this kid. His favorite word right now is "yellow" (lel-lo) and he uses it like Sophia used to say "ga", meaning, for everything. He will point at almost any object and say, "yellow" like it is a question, a command, and a noun all in one. I almost regret teaching him the word, because it isn't a noun, a command or a question!

He also likes saying "two". He does it really cute by scrunching up his shoulders and putting up one finger by his nose as if to say, "one more please, look how cute I am, you know you want me to have two." He mostly preforms this function for asking for more vitamins in the morning, and who can blame him when they look and taste like candy (gummy bears).

He is finally broadening his eating repertoir, which is a relief. Today he ate mostly fruits, but that's a good thing in my opinion. He is starting to try more meats, including the ever detested chicken. He has had chicken, turkey and steak this week. He also likes asparagus. He will eat the cheese off of anything - pizza and quesadilla. He can say "quesadilla" and its super cute. He says it like, "sisa de ya". It is one of my favorite things for him to say along with "cocadoodle doo" which he says with his head bobbing right and left and mostly sounds like, "do do do!" it is very triumphant.

We are all tired, but going to spend the next (up to 6) weeks, resting and cuddling and hanging out. We have very few plans that we feel like implementing, and will just relax as 3 before we meet the whirlwind of 4.

We wish all of you a very blessed advent. We will feel the expectancy in a new and exciting way this year, and we look forward to the advent of our own little Joy.

Some pictures from Oct-Nov

2010-11-22T12:57:00.001-08:00

a family picture as we wait for breakfast!

The Greenwell Men

what we did in October and the start of Nov.

2010-11-06T18:32:00.000-07:00

We realize we've pretty much dropped the ball on updating this lately, and we are sorry. Also, something is screwy with the picture loader on blogspot so we aren't able to post photos right now. I did include a video though. It's at the bottom if you don't feel like reading all of this update.

I was sick for the last part of Sept and early part of October, then I started feeling better and started taking care of things I had let slip during that time, as well as giving Tom a break. Tom had been running the house, taking care of Clark and letting me rest whenever he wasn't at work working. Thank God for him. =)

We had a very nice visit with Tom's parents at the end of October. They are in Israel right now, and we were their stopover point before leaving the US.

We went up to Baltimore one day and saw Ft. McHenry - the fort that got attacked and from which attach Francis Scott Key wrote the Star Spangled Banner. It was a very patriotic and moving trip. I think we were all surpised at how American it made us feel, especially after we've done so many other USA things living near DC. This is one place to go to if you ever think that America might suck, cause its definitely makes you love your country.

We hung out at the house quite a bit and relaxed, which is always the best type of vacation in my opinion! For Halloween night, Clark was a little dragon. He LOVED trick-or-treating. He loves outside, he loves taking walks, he loves knocking on doors. All of the things combined with little old ladies and our sweet neighbors bending over and offering Clark a bowl full of pretty colored thingies resulted in a JOYOUS CLARK. He grabbed candy by the handsful and went back for more - to the utter delight of our neighbors. He really liked seeing the other kids dressed up and could have stayed up all night watching them. He also could have stayed up all night from all of the sugar he ate - as we did let him taste the delicious treasures he brought home for mommy and daddy to eat. The kid loves candy, as Tom's mom said, "He's no dummy."

In other news we just found out our insurance won't cover a homebirth, so we may have our baby at the birthcenter in Alexandria, VA where Andrea GG had Sophia almost 3 years ago! We considered switching providers and having Joy in the nearby hospital, but I really don't like the idea of it. The last thing we Greenwells need is a toddler, a newborn, a tired new mommy, and a Tom with C-diff, or MRSA or something like that. He's just too delicate to be exposed to hyper-antibiotic-resistant hosptial germs. We can switch our insurance through open enrollment @ Tom's work, but it will only go into effect on January 1, 2011. The new insurance should cover a home birth, so we are praying that Joy will come late (as Clark did) and join us in 2011.

The other big thing that's going on here is the Bradley Method is undergoing sort of a coup and another organization may begin certifying teachers to teach the same philosophy of birth under a different name. The new organization seems to be very responsive to the suggestions of new teachers and willing to do things that the older organization won't in order to reach as many mothers and families as possible with the positive message of natural childbirth. I may switch to the new organization, but I'm waiting to see what will happen as things with the new organization are made more clear in the coming weeks.

For those of you who love the Bradley Method, just know that there may be two certifying organizations teaching the same/similar thing, but organized and run differently. If anything it seems the new organization will have better looking materials. They are also saying they are going to improve the quality of scientific evidence referenced in classes and with the method in order to get more of the medical community on board with the safety that is found in reducing unneccessary interventions. So it looks like good things are coming out of the new group, but again, I'm going to wait and see.

I won't be teaching again until at least March and am looking forward to getting a (or more) doula client next summer/fall. I also have an offer to teach Childbirth at a local hospital. It would be a "hospital compliance" course but they would also permit me to teach a natural childbirth class (not a full Bradley course). It would be good because they would recruit students and I would show up and teach and get paid - nice and easy.

What else? Tom went to a retreat this Saturday morning and he said he had a wonderful time. I'll be working on a youth group retreat in two weekends and am spending some evenings going to meetings to prep for it. I'm the creative coordinator or something like that. I'm in charge of music, decorations and coming up with ideas for this "reverse" video we are making (look up "reverse" videos on youtube).

Tom is going to San Diego next week and I'm going to be alllllll allllloooooonnnnnneee for 6 whole days. Please pray for me that I'm a good mommy, cause Tom has always come home at the end of the day to give me a break. Maybe I should hire a babysitter one afternoon just to have some private time! eek!

Finally, Clark continues to be the light of our life and he is super awesome. Tom is a super awesome dad, and made a fun ride for him with the laundry basket. Here is a video.

Fall is here!

2010-10-25T23:06:00.000-07:00

I was raking leaves a few weeks ago, and Clark joined in on the fun. What he likes best is walking thru the leaf piles, but I got him to sit in this one! More pictures of the wondrous trees in our neighborhood soon!

Clark explains to me that the shell noodles look like little hats. :-)

2010-10-19T10:13:00.001-07:00

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Clark likes trucks and cars....

2010-10-02T22:47:00.000-07:00

Thanks Ms. Romona!!

Good Saturday Part 2

2010-10-02T22:13:00.000-07:00

Clark and Veronica waiting in the car while I got the rockets ready. Clark loves music!

Pretty Good 1st Saturday of October

2010-10-02T21:13:00.000-07:00

Despite me being on antibiotics and Veronica having a bad cough/cold today, we ended up having a pretty good day. I have gotten back into model rocketry since high school and college, and planned on launching some rockets today. In the morning, we launched some rockets with Veronica, Clark, and our neighbor friends Dan and Eva. It worked out pretty well with a clear day and low winds, and we had a secondary launch site that worked out for low altitude launches. Our primary choice was a nice park but there were tents set up there and a big field was fenced off, so we decided to try a high school nearby. After a nap, we did some grocery shopping, then in the evening Veronica and I had dinner and mini-golf. It was a great day! Here are some videos of the rocket launches:

And another one of a smaller rocket that we almost lost:

Finally, this is the cutest rocket launch video where Clark presses the ignition key (at T-minus negative 2) and then claps:

Chicken bread!

2010-09-30T15:24:00.001-07:00

Look mom! I made Chicken Bread all by myself with no receipe! To all those non-Averills out there Chicken bread is homemade bread stuffed with a mixture of chicken, pasta sauce and motzerella! It is delicious when mom makes it, hopefully will be this time too. I had some extra dough so I added rosemary and olive oil for a special treat!
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Chosing battles

2010-09-30T05:57:00.001-07:00

After saying, " no we can't go outside, it's raining" all week, I finally gave in. I got his raincoat and showed him how to use an umbrella. We went outside, he was timid at first, listening to the rain drops from inside the umbrella. Then he grew in confidence and headed down the driveway. Then! He found the river flowing in the gutter and took off, in it. He walked down the gutter. After we rounded the corner, gutters disappeared. Don't worry, he found and splashed in every puddle along the way.
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The Cutest Thing -TCT

2010-09-29T10:52:00.000-07:00

Tom and I have been having a nightly conversation about "The Cutest Thing" that Clark did that day. While these stories are usually really short, they are the darling type of memories we like to keep. I thought that maybe I could start sharing The Cutest Thing on the blog in just a few sentences with you so that you too can benefit from our darling son.

Today I went to a meeting and Clark came along. As we were leaving, Clark found a muffin and started eating it. I let him take the muffin with him into the car seat. He ate the muffin while we slowly moved through traffic. I didn't realize the muffin was almost gone, but Clark let me know. He threw the muffin wrapper over my chair (he sits right behind me). It hit me in the back of the head and splattered muffin bits all over the car. I was on the phone at the time, and said, "CLARK! NO! THATS VERY NAUGHTY!!!" Tom (who I was talking to) wanted to know what happened, so I told him. We both laughed, because it was pretty funny, although very very naughty.

Later in the same car ride, I gave Clark a book to read, because he kept demaning more food and I didn't have any. He was happy to receive the book, but started looking out of the window. A few minutes later, I looked back to see how he was doing. He had been gazing out of the window, but saw me check on him. He quickly buried his face in the book like he thought he was supposed to be reading and not looking out. I laughed, he looked up and smiled his sneaky grin. That was the cutest thing... so far.

Sillies

2010-09-24T09:12:00.000-07:00

I've got two very silly sillies in my house. Clark is quite the mimicker lately. Here Tom and Clark do some pelvic rocks to get ready for to have their babies.

Inspired by a recent visit to the Houston Averills, Tom has taken to making hats for Clark out of food boxes. This fuzzy picture shows Clark as "Pizza Box Head". Clark played with the box for a week, repeatedly bring it to me to put on his head.

Another gift fromt the Houston Averills was a carseat toy - a Lion, wearing board shorts who makes music. Clark LOVES the music and started dancing to it. We couldn't help but get it on video for all eternity. This video is cute.

But this video is cuter. You only need to watch the first half - it gets boring after tom says, "put it on the blog" I was just hoping that Clark would come back and dance again instead of throwing the lion around the room.

By the time I shot this, Clark was more interested in the camera - but it does highlight his Hellen Keller speech, and the lion. and how he is annoyed that I won't give him the camera. and how he fell and busted his lip earlier, and how Tom doesn't want me to film him. oh well!

25 weeks

2010-09-20T05:05:00.000-07:00

Hey! Here I am 25 weeks along. I feel massive, but when I look at the photo I think, "thats not as big as I feel" oh well. Baby Joy is pretty happy in there and getting stronger every day. I get lots of punches and kicks. Its a fun time.

Clark is a tremendous cutie. see? He loves being outside, pens, cups and anything else he can get his hands on! He says "hel-lo" "bye bye" and "thank you" at the appropriate times, with mostly no promting. He can also say some other words like Cracker, make animals noises, and is picking up new sounds every day. Yesterday we walked in Rock Creek and I was trying to get him to say "river" and he sounded like Hellen Keller when he responded, "roh roh" but we get the idea, and its beyond the "ga ga" he makes for most other words he can't sound out.

Here are Clark and Bernadette checking out the turtle at the nature center. I've finished watching Bernadette and she's in daycare now. Lauren and I hope we can still get together once a week or so. As I type this, Clark is pointing at Bernadette and saying "Ba dat" he's excited to see her, but doesn't realize she wont be coming today.

Clark is a sneaky boy and often does things we think are really funny, such as hide things under the sink, or line up favorite toys at the door in the hopes that we might let him outside. Here he is looking sneaky with his alphabet fridge thing. He has some blue makeup on his eye from a fun trip to the mall and the makeup store Sephora where he and Beradette kept reaching for the makeup samples. The one they got their fingers in was this crazy blue.

Music at the park

2010-09-16T10:48:00.001-07:00

We're at Cabin John Park today. Clark made some music by banging a stick on a bell. Its funny cause he wa kind of afraid of it.
I had a midwife appointment yesterday and I'm still pregnant, and getting pregnanter. I'm at about 25 weeks now, ending m 2nd trimester. I'm so happy with the way this pregnancy is going. I feel huge, but know I will laugh at that statement in 2 months.
My sister Katie will be having her little girl anyday now. Its very exciting that our family is getting bigger!
I just signed Clark up for swim lessons, so we'll be going to the pool weekly until mid- December. I got a really cute maternity swimsuit :-). We went to the pool this week. I swam laps with Clark perched on my tummy for the backstroke and him in the crook of my arm and sholder for side stroke. It was fun, but Mr skinny got cold fast.
Speaking of Mr skinny, at his 18 month checkup he was back in 25th percentile for weight! Yay! We really like our pediatrician, which is a huge blessing. We hope he's on duty when Joy comes so he gets to see him/her right away.
That's all for now! Love, V
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The Juliana Theory

2010-09-12T06:37:00.001-07:00

Tom, Veronica and Brett Detar, lead singer and guitar for The Juliana Theory. We also met all of the band and told them Thank You for being the soundtrack to our relationship. Their songs, "Summer in Bethany" and "Top of the World" and "baby" and "Jewel to Sparkle" in addition to so many more have been playing in the background, either over speakers or in our heads in so many defining moments in our life. Our early courtship (Summer...) Our engagement (Top of the world) our wedding dance (top of the world) and now lullabies for our baby (Summer...). Thanks TJT and we look forward to hearing the new bands coming out of this group: Vesta and Brett Detar solo.
I thought Joy would be kicking along with the music, but s/he went right to sleep. This kid will be perfect for our noisy, music filled household. Congrats to Joy for attending his/her first concert! The Juliana Theory reunion tour final show ever: Emotion is Still Dead.
(Clark's first concert- attended at about the same gestational age- was Jimmy Eat World and Paramour @ American University).
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At the Altar Bar awaiting the show!

2010-09-11T17:12:00.001-07:00

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Guess where we are!?!

2010-09-11T16:23:00.001-07:00

We're in Pittsburg- and by we I mean Tom, Veronica and Joy. We've left Clark with a trusted friend for the night. This is our first overnight trip without him. We're going to a concert tonight! Yay!
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18 months

2010-09-07T18:46:00.001-07:00

Can you believe only a year and a half ago, God sent us this wonderfully amazing gift?
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latest happenings

2010-09-07T09:25:00.000-07:00

A few cool things have happened in the last couple of weeks, so I'll tell you about them.
1. I wrote an email to a community list serve asking if anyone would stand behind me regarding an issue I had with our local parks. The issues were: at one park, parents had to go down a very steep hill to get to the park, and then back up again to get out. It was slippery in the morning when the ground was dewey, and very difficult to do if you had a double stroller, and kids, and baggage. It was hard enough with one kid! The other issue was that the other local park had no sidewalk access to it, so a kid of walking age would have to walk in the street.
I just emailed the group to see if anyone else cared about this, before approaching the city about it. However, someone from the group forwarded my email to the city. I had city personnel emailing and calling me that afternoon. The very next day, I met with some managers from recreation and parks department. They heard my concerns, saw the ludicrious hill that I was talking about, and agreed that something needed to be done. So right now, they are doing some measurements, and looking into pre-fabricated ramps to see if they can't get some respite for poor caregivers out there who want to bring their kids to the park! Its very exciting. I hope they call it the "Veronica Greenwell cares about her community Ramp!" After they get info on cost of the ramp, then they'll present to the mayor and get a timeline for completion! It is very, very exciting!!! =)

2. This weekend I spent 10 whole hours away from Clark on both Saturday and Sunday. This was our longest separation to date. The reason was to attend a training by the organization DONA, Doulas of North America. I was trained to become a doula! A Doula is a labor support person who helps a mom and her partner through labor. I was really taking it to get more info to help the parents who take my Bradley classes, but now I want to attend births. I may have to wait a year or so, until baby Joy is big enough to not have me at her/his beck and call. But its something I am really looking forward to! I may offer my services to the parents in my current class, they will be giving birth in October.

3. Tom has been working on our garden and its beautiful. =)

4. Clark is learning a new word about every other day. This weekend, while I was gone, Tom taught him to say "spoon" and now when asked what a rooster says, he replies, "cock-a" so its an excellent start! He can follow some directions such as, "go get your shoes" and he'll bring a pair of his shoes to put on. He can "go get mommy's shoes" and he'll bring me two shoes, sometimes mine, sometimes Toms, but usually a pair. We are working on "get mommy's blue shoes" to get him to bring my sneekers. He knows that if he brings shoes, he might get to go outside. Its one way he tells us he wants to go out there. He also knows that we put bug lotion on him before going outside, so now he will bring shoes and point at the lotion indicating OUTSIDE!!!
He has been putting himself to sleep by singing and talking in his crib, its pretty cute. We have been giving him lots of balloons lately - they just happen to have them wherever we are shopping. Balloons are his favorite thing right now. So one day he played with the balloon all day long. When I put him to bed that night, I heard him exclaiming, "babooo, baboooo" (balloon, balloon). It was so cute.
He's simply a wonderful kid, he's got tons of energy which we burn off on walks, in parks, and mostly outside. I'm kind of dreading keeping him indoors this winter - but with a newborn, it will just have to be his new reality. I'm sure we'll make some outings, but not nearly as many as we have been. We'll have to limit museum visits and metro rides to reduce risk of RSV to Joy.

I'm enjoying this pregnancy and not worrying, whining or freaking out as I did last time. It is really nice. I'm looking forward to the third trimester and giving birth at one point. We just got mom's plane ticket out for January 7th and look forward to seeing her then!

The end!

Gift idea

2010-08-27T19:06:00.001-07:00

Tom and I were watching TV tonight, we got up and took a break. I looked at our sofa and realized how truely uncomfortable it must be. We both mde it more comfy with pillows, but I just didn't realize how much.
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Cookies, pregnancy, MoCo Fair.

2010-08-25T09:37:00.000-07:00

I miss the days when I wrote fun stories and thoughtful posts here. I think those days are over, and now this blog is a picture purge for me (and you). I have written some really nice blogs in my head about motherhood, our family, Clark being an older sibling, our new baby Joy being a second born, going to the fair, and a nice one on nature walks. When I sit down, however, I want to load photos as fast as possible and then go take a nap. We are on one nap per day and I need that one to make it through the afternoon!

So I'm posting a smorgasboard of photos here.

Clark and I made some cookies. He is a pretty good helper, although here, he is just helping to clean the spoon. He can stir with lots of supervision and pour things into the bowl. He also wants to eat raw cookie dough, which we keep to a minimum.

I'm pregnant. I'm almost 23 weeks, which means I'm almost in the 3rd trimester. Holy cow. It has gone so quickly and has been so painless compared to the pregnancy with Gumbo. I hardly feel like complaining - which I'm sure makes these posts better to read. I feel the baby kick every day, usually in the evening after dinner and in bed. It is so sweet. My hips aren't driving me crazy yet, but I have some pain in my sacrum. I got a deep tissue massage this week - and since then I've been having some strong Braxton-Hicks contractions. Next time, I'll stick to sweedish prenatal massaging - but DEEP TISSUE WAS AWESOME! and exactly what I needed to get rid of every bit of back tension I've ever had ever.

Clark, Tom and I went to the Montgomery County Fair this past week. We saw tons of farm animals, balloons, bees, plants, vegetables, and the DEMOLITION DERBY! It was so much fun to watch the cars smashing into eachother. Next year they are doing mini-vans, so we are coming back. We might have to do monster truck rally night too!

In the photos, Clark is just in his diaper because he had some snowball. The day before we had had one and he got the juice all over the stroller. Then the stroller got swarmed by bees. This day, I let him eat the sweet delicious icy concoction. Then, I stripped him naked, washed the stroller, rinsed his clothes in the bathroom sink with soap, and made sure he wasn't sticky. I never bring extra clothes with me, and it was really hot, so we let him play in his diaper. We stayed at the fair very late that night, and Clark stayed up till 10pm! He fell asleep within one minute of getting in the car!

We also saw some "Freak" animals at the fair. They live in a pasture 8 months of the year, and the other 4 tour fairs. Here is a 5 legged sheep. I love sheep. I wish we could have a pet sheep, even a 5 legged one. They are so sweet when they BAAAA at you. Clark loves them too.

Trolley from 1800's.

2010-08-22T12:23:00.001-07:00

It ran in DC.
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Trolley museum!

2010-08-22T12:05:00.001-07:00

We went to the Capitol Trolley museum today! This is from our trolley ride. We also saw a cute film, trolley diaorama, and learned some stuff. Tom really loves trains and trollies, so he's really fun to go with to these kind of places.
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I picked my salad 20 minutes ago. Yum!

2010-08-19T09:43:00.000-07:00

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Summer in review.

2010-08-11T13:55:00.000-07:00

This has been a fun and summer with tons of travel. We've been to Ft. Lauderdale,Fl for a Tom work conference, San Francisco and Wine Country for Ray(Tom's older brother)'s wedding, two weeks later to New Orleans/Lacombe, La for my 10 year High School reunion, San Diego, Ca for a week for a Tom conference (in Long Beach) and some Tom NEI (National Eye Institute) work in SD, then a few days later to Houston, Tx to see my brother and family, to New Orleans again for a wedding out in "northern" Louisiana (Bunkie) and finally to Nashville for a baby shower of my dear friend, Maria.

Summer travel is now over.

I've been babysitting Bernadette in between travel assignments and will continue to watch her for a few more months. I'm hoping I can watch her until the Christmas holiday time, when I'll be about 38 weeks pregnant.

This pregnancy is going very well. I am amazed at the difference between my pregnancy with "Joy" and my pregnancy with "Gumbo". I think a huge part of the difference is the work situation. I love staying home with Clark, teaching the Bradley Method, and babysitting a few days a wekk. I am doing things I love with people I care about. Chemonics was not the same story. I was constantly stressed at work, and took it out on the pregnancy. I guess it makes sense because people always ask, "how are you feeling" and I said, "overwhelmed, emotional, stressed, exhausted." but it wasn't because of Gumbo, it was because of Chemonics. I'm staying a lot healthier this time around too. I'm eating very well and am 23 pounds lighter right now than I was when I was 20 weeks along with Gumbo. I feel like I have lots of energy most days. I exercise, and feel good doing it.

It is amazing. If this pregnancy was like Gumbo's it might have been the last, but so far its not, and I am thankful!

We had our 20 week ultrasound last Friday and the baby is in there, just one, and baby looks great. We don't know the sex because baby's legs were close together and then crossed. So, this is an unknown baby. I'm a fan of suprises, but would have liked to be suprised last Friday - not 22 weeks from now. Alas, Tom and I will learn the wonder of being suprised.

Clark is a wonder of a child. He learns a new word or thing about every other day. Today's discovery is "boo-boo". I hit my knee on the baby gate and have a gash and a bruise. He has been inspecting it, and comparing it to his own boo-boo, one he got while running on the sidewalk, and then falling. Two days ago he learned the sign for "diaper change"

He really pays attention to things and is interested in checking everything out. He was carefully watching the midwife take my blood pressure today, and even squatted down, and leaned in to get a closer look. This morning we took a walk in Rock Creek Park. There is a grated bridge over the creek. Clark spent 10-15 minutes walking back and forth over it, hitting it with a stick to make noise and watching the water move. I think he's got a lot of engineer in him. =)

His biggest thing lately is climbing. We'll find that he's climbed onto kitchen chairs (we've gotten him to stop and not climb on the table), a weight bench, or into the stroller. He is using his baby toys as steps and we might walk into the computer room to see him standing on his piano and clinging to the bookshelf. It is a pretty scary time, but he is surving falls, and his long bones know how to make fresh blood if any leaks out of his face or knees. =)

We are cleaning out our guest room to make it a guest/office room. Its incredible the stuff we have accumulated. Sometimes we wonder, "are we horders? why do we have so many things?" Freecycle has people begging for our stuff, and some things are leaving via Craigslist or the trash. We almost cleaned that room out and are a month away from moving the office stuff into the guest room. It will take us about a month to do that, then I guess we'll make the blue office into Clark's new room. I'm not really ready for him to move downstairs, so maybe it will be a playroom for a little while. I'll be happy to get his toys out of the living room and confined into their own special downstairs place (especially as it gets colder and the porch gets less usable).

Tom is pretty good. He thought he might be getting c-diff again, but it was some other bug that he fought well and defeated. He is doing his best to stay healthy and as part of it we have hired some people to come clean our house - dusting and de-molding and finding things we didn't know existed to clean. It is a luxury and a health issue, but we are so glad. They have come once already and will be back in a few weeks.

Tom really enjoys his job and the difference between his current situation and where he was when Clark was born is incredible. It is much better. He just got promoted, which helps pay for the cleaning people and for our new baby expenses. =)

We are pretty happy and having a good life. We're doing our best to be loving people to each other and to the world. It was lovely to see all of our immediate families this summer and feel it will be a while before we can make that sort of mega tripping again.

We hope you are doing well!
Love, V

Clark was just out joy riding with the girls.

2010-08-09T09:30:00.001-07:00

This is our next door neighbor, Juliana, and her cousin.
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Wading pool and watermelon

2010-08-09T09:22:00.000-07:00

Could it be a more perfect moment?
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so we went on some trips.

2010-07-29T20:34:00.000-07:00

I'm so glad I already wrote about our San Diego trip. I couldn't find the files on our new computer of the photos I took on the trip, and I can't even remember back that far at this point!!! AHH!!!

So the past month, the whole summer infact, has been a whirlwind. I don't even remember half of the things that we've been up to.

I know we went to Houston to visit my brother, his wife Katie, and his kids, Matt, Kenzie and baby girl (coming in September/October).

I remember it being a really fun, relaxing and rainy (there was a hurricane nearby) trip. We stayed indoors and played a really fun game called Word Thief. Its like poker and scrabble, except that its not like either of those games at all. We bought fireworks and set them off in the street after a fun BBQ. Clark slept right through them and was a really good boy.
Matt and Kenzie are totally awesome kids and had fun playing with Clark.

Clark enjoyed them, the dog, Toby, their baby piano and playing in the backyard's sandbox. Clark is crazy about outside and neither the Texas sun, nor rain, thwarted his efforts. What else did we do? We went to the mall one day when it wouldn't stop raining, and when it did stop raining and get to over 110 degrees we decided to go for a little hike in the arboretum and then have a picnic. It was hot, I saw a red tailed hawk, and then Clark got attacked by fire ants. It was very eventful.

At some point we flew from Houston to New Orleans, and the flight was great because Tom took Clark on HIS flight, so I had an hour by myself on the airplane with no baby and I finished a book. It was AWESOME!

In Louisiana I'm sure we did some things. I'll remember some of them here for you.

We met up with my Aunt Cindi, and my cousins, and their kids. My cousin Courtney had a new addition since last year, Chloe, and I'm glad we got to meet her.
Here is Clark with Chloe. (great shot of Chloe, right? I know, next time I'll do a better job!)

Me and my cousin, Courtney!

Courtney's first big girl, Annazelle.

Aunt Cindi with my cousins Naomi and Marissa.

We drove out to Bunkie for a wedding. I took about 4 pictures of the whole thing because I was having too much fun to think about caputring the memories for old times sakes. Here is one of the photos I took. Its Liz Singreen, Clark and Tom outside of the Church.

The story of how we got home from the airport and how Louisiana has too much water. We really love Louisiana cause its so beautiful and relaxing. Tom was complaining because there was too much water. I said, "how can you complain about too much water??!?! you are from San Diego, the desert, with no water!!!" and he said, "remember when we flew in and your mom said we couldn't get home because the street was flooded, and we had to park the car down the street, change cars to the truck, move our luggage and take the truck through the flood waters home?" and I said, "yeah, ok, maybe we have a lot of water, but its not always flooded!" but a lot of the time, it is.

We went into New Orleans two nights. One was for Taylor's Bachelorette party. We ate at Mothers and Cafe Du Monde, then Tom and I, had to go home since Clark didn't know we were at a party and he would be waking up bright and early like always, and my mom was going to work, so we had to look after him.

The other night we had dinner with Steve and Tracy at La Madeleine on the Riverbend. Maybe if we ever move back to NOLA (which we never will), we can live in the Riverbend... or Madisionville (less flooding, not a bowl...)

The rest of our time (that I can remember) we spent relaxing on the porch, in the pool on mom and dad's deck, or eating snowballs. It was a supremly excellent trip. I could move back almost anytime (hint, hint).

I'm glad I got to see my whole Averill family this summer, it might be a while before we travel again.

Ready to come home.

2010-07-26T06:15:00.001-07:00

Our flight out of Nashville was delayed until the next day due to crazy bad weather along the Eastern seaboard. We spent the night relaxing at Maria's house. Now we are hanging out at the airport. They have an awesome playground here- it should be a requirement that all airports have them. We are looking forward to coming home and staying home for the rest of the summer.
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Sleeping like...

2010-07-24T19:01:00.000-07:00

A Tom! I don't know how they survive it, but both cover their heads to fall asleep. Its pretty cute to see Clark following in his dad's foot steps!
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We just met a fireman and truck outside of Home Depot!

2010-07-24T05:59:00.001-07:00

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How we know that Clark is a Greenwell.

2010-07-12T12:10:00.001-07:00

He's got his foot in his mouth!

We've been traveling for the past few weeks and are getting home soon, I'll so a good update later this week.
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San Diego.

2010-06-30T10:34:00.000-07:00

We are spending so much of this summer traveling. We have some important events to attend, and important people to visit. We also are taking advantage of Clark's free flying status, and my empty lap to see family and friends around our country.

Clark and I were in San Diego last week visiting Greenwells and Grillots while Tom was in Long Beach going to a conference, he came down the coast on the last few days of our trip to do some government work in San Diego, mentor some post-docs at Scripps and visit with his family.

We stayed with Nana Greenwell. She has a delicious little ball of puffy fur named Allie. Clark really loved Allie. He loved petting her, following her around, getting her to lick him, grabbing her tail and even pretending to be her. He spent most of his time going "oof, oof, oof," his version of a bark.

Clark loved climbing in and out of her dog box, bed, and splashing in her water. He and his cousin, Sophia, had a blast pretending to be doggies!
He loved being able to play with Sophia so much! I think it was good for her to have Clark, as she just got a baby brother that week, and things always change with a new baby. Clark was someone from her past who she may have slightly remembered, but definitely thought was fun.

They try out the dog box and doggie bed. We also got to go to a park to play. All of the fun and sunlight helped Clark adjust to the Western time zone. He had fun playing with Sophia's sand toys and eating sand. He walked around a bunch and gained the affections of everyone there. Sophia is especially talented linguistically, cousin Ruby is especially talented physically, but Clark's super power is certifiably his charm.

Nana/Janet and I had a really fun time going to the Viejas Outlet mall and doing some shopping for the new baby. Since Andrea and Jake don't like to know what gender of baby they are having in advance, everyone scrambles once the baby is born to bestow upon it gender appropriate gifts, and we did. We bought a good amount of boy clothes at the mall and were happy to bring them to the wee babe, like Jesus in the manger. We the wise ladies with animal, sports and blue themed outfits. So, I know you are dying to see this baby already. Here you go. I present to you the proud parents!

And the wee little babe.
And the babe again.

And the babe and the baby.

And the newest addition in jungle animal themed jammies.

It was very nice to be in town the first week of his life, yet probably hectic for everyone in SD as I was an extra body and had my own little boy to plan around. It was nice that Sophia had us to play with and get to visit with her. Her birth was such a big deal in my life and I have really missed watching her grow since they moved back to SD. Its a bummer that I won't get to see this new one grow up - at least not in person, but that's the reality of our big country. I hope that since we are gone, their family is getting some rest, things are settling down, and that the baby is getting used to being outside Andrea now.

When Tom finished up in Long Beach and came down to San Diego, we were able to spend some time together as a family. We went down to Ocean Beach one morning and had breakfast at Margarita's Mexican Food and American Breakfast, better know to us as "Mexican American Food!" we had an awesome breakfast while Clark ate Jelly at the table.

We walked around our old neighborhood and noticed its changes. Most notably are two marijuana shops. I can't say that I wish I lived there anymore. We always said it was not a good place to raise kids, and now I'm even more glad that we left.

One afternoon, while Clark and I were waiting for Tom to do some mentoring at Scripps, we went to the mall and found these awesome dolphin fountains. Clark loved them and had fun splashing in the water. He was a little afraid at first, thinking there was some kind of giant animal in the water, but then he realized they weren't going to hurt him. =)

This is the fountain where he got so soaked,
had to take all of his clothes off and bring him home naked!

We also took a nice hike up Cowl's mountain with our good friend Julie. It took us a lot longer than we thought because we had never really hiked with Clark before. He wasn't a big fan of being in the Ergo carrier and wanted to get down and play. When we finally got up to the top, we freed the boy and he got really dirty. I feel bad for San Diego mothers with crawlers and toddlers - cause it is a dirty place.

dirty, dirty, dirtyThe views from the top were very pretty and it was a lovely hike overall. We had considered hiking Iron Mountain (where we got engaged!), which takes about 4 hours if you are not stopping for a baby - so we're glad we didn't do that mountain!

Julie and Clark going up, up and away!

Everyone but me.

Everyone but Tom. Julie helps Clark practice good sun habits! When we got up there, he was done wearing his hat. None of us were wearing sunscreen either - what idiots!

Tom didn't mind wearing Clark's hat though!

All in all it was a very nice trip and we had a great time visiting with family, seeing friends, and exploring our old territory. It was relaxing for me in many ways because I didn't have to worry about cleaning or laundry or what bed needed to be changed and vacuumed under next. I read a few books, magazines and took lots of naps. It's the last time I'll be going West for a while. In January, we'll have the new baby, Clark will cost money in March and we'll probably use all of our vacation on maternity leave. I'm glad we got to be there together as a family before all of our next big changes!

Zoo trip

2010-06-30T10:27:00.000-07:00

Hey!
I've been taking photos all this month and not really posting anything. Once again, I'm sorry I'm a slacker. Here are some photos from our most recent zoo trip. Clark really loves the small mammal house because he can see the animals up close at the windows and they run around so he definitely notices them.I also like the farm part of the zoo, because we have lots of books that talk about farm animals. I encouraged Clark to say, "mooooo" and he said back in a high note "ooooooooo" our little opera singer. =)

Family.

2010-06-28T13:06:00.000-07:00

So I've been meaning to write for a while, but have just been emailing photos from my cell phone instead. I promise to try to write a blog with words at least once a month from here on out...

One thing that we really love right now is family. Tom, Veronica, and Clark. When you first get married, it takes a while to stop having conversations like, "we have to visit your family for this holiday." or "well that's how your family does it, but mine does it differently." Eventually you develop your own your twosome, threesome, or moresome into your own family. We definitely are now, and its a wonderful thing.

When Tom comes home from work we usually share a hug and/or a kiss, just some quiet time between husband and wife. Clark, however, knows that this is a special time and has made it family time. He rushes over and climbs between our legs, reaching up to be lifted into our hug. He gives us kisses and lays his head across our chests.

The fact that he does this is one of my proudest parenting accomplishments. Our son knows that we, three, are family. He knows that we belong together and that we are a source of love and nourishment.

I pray that as my belly grows larger and our newest baby makes his/her presence known, that Clark can open his heart to an expanding concept of family. We are happy to welcome this new being into our lives now, but wait for the birth this winter around New Years.
Love to all,
Veronica, Tom, Clark and baby Joy. The Greenwell Family

IMG00724.jpg

2010-06-20T10:35:00.001-07:00

We get to fly on the Shamu plane! Suddenly I have rays of hope bursting out of me!
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Leaving on a jetplane.

2010-06-20T10:28:00.001-07:00

We leave in 30 minutes for San Diego. Clark is enjoying the airport, Veronica and Tom are not. We are on seperate airlines going to seperate destinations (Tom to long beach). We'll be traveling for almost the next 3 weeks. Wish us luck, pray for our sanity and for peace and relaxation. Thanks!
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Home Depot.

2010-06-09T08:11:00.001-07:00

The kids @ home depot. We are getting supplies for a painting project this weekend!
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The best .25 cents I ever spent.

2010-06-01T16:42:00.000-07:00

The kids love this fire engine that I bought at a yard sale. It was featured in Clark's halloween photos!

Bollywood dance class!

2010-06-01T16:04:00.000-07:00

i
Tom and I took a Bollywood dance class this spring. It was the first thing we've really done for ourselves in a long, long, long time. We had neighbors babysit Clark in exchange for watching their kids sometime. At our last class we had a little recital. One of our friends/babysitters came along and took some film and photos. She held Clark during the performance.

Clark's little vest is from Afghanistan. My outfit is my own, which I won off of an internet contest. It was sent to me from India! I applied to the contest in college when I was dancing in Masala and Divali festivals @ Tulane with IATU (Indian Association of Tulane University). The whole class was 5 weeks long, so we are not totally awesome, but here is the first minute of our 5 minute dance.