Christmas Haul 2009

Christmas is a great reason to post lots of pictures. And I've done my best to stock up! I'm not the greatest at taking pictures. Though, thanks to a generous gift of my brand new digital camera from Reilly and Elyse, I have a camera that has enough battery life to make carrying it around worth my while. So I'm getting better and taking random pictures, such as absolutely adorable pictures of Megan sleeping (in the gasp-eliciting non-AAP-allowed belly sleeping position at the tender age of only 5 weeks old). And showing off the extra creative picture frame I put together for my mom's Christmas present. For those that don't care to enlarge it to see what the main frame says, it says "Why I had kids... Grandkids". Though, I believe my mom always said she had kids to do the chores for her. Not that we were very good at doing the chores...

Anyway, unfortunately, James had to work Christmas Eve this year. There is a bit of "hooray" with that, because he had to work Christmas Eve due to a large amount of work to be done. While it ruined our Christmas Eve, it does mean there's enough work that he's getting his overtime back for the first time since March. I'm excited. It's just in time for a few extra added expenses (like the toddler bed Cadence will be moving into in the next few weeks, so that she is used to the bed and the crib is ready and waiting for Megan when the time comes).

So, Cadence, Megan, and I spent Christmas Eve at my mom's house. A delicious typical Christmas dinner spread of turkey, mashed potatoes, ham, and all sorts of other goodies. Cadence got to open her presents from Nana, Poppa, and her Grandpa. All of them got noisy toys. Grandpa does it on purpose to by a butthead, and admits so. Nana and Poppa just got Cadence the toy because they thought she'd love it. And she does! The talking puppy is her favorite toy right now. She's adored it each time we stopped to play with it at the store, so when I heard they'd gotten it for her I was thrilled. It was definitely on my list of things to buy before too long.

Christmas morning and most of Christmas day was spent at home, just our family. Cadence didn't do too well with the present opening. She kept getting distracted by that darn puppy that Nana had given her the night before! Her stocking from Santa ended up having to be dumped by me. On a high note, the hand mirror did get her to temporarily ditch the singing dog, and she was fascinated by the toy doctor kit. And when she opened the brightly colored back of Mega Blocks and we showed her how they fit together she did put everything down and try her own hand at it for awhile. The Magna Doodle, however was no competition, especially since she stubbornly insisted on trying to draw with the wrong side of the magnet pen! When no lines appeared for all her hard work, she lost interest very quickly. For Christmas evening, we tried a new ham recipe consisting of oranges and cinnamon sticks. Then we returned to my mom's house in hopes of hearing from Seth, who's in the Phillipines on his mission. No luck there, so we went home without talking to him. I'm sure we'll get an explanation as to why in his email on Monday!

Today, Sunday, we drove out to Taft for our final bit of holiday cheer with James's family. Cadence loved seeing her uncles. Uncle Jon was even allowed to share her blanket with her for awhile. And Uncle Jared was allowed to hold her MagnaDoodle for a short period of time before it had to be returned to Uncle Jon. Megan spent the afternoon being passed around and spoiled, as only a newborn can be spoiled. Cadence unwrapped (okay, okay, I unwrapped and showed her) a ton of new toys, including two new baby dolls which she immediately began playing with. Overall, Cadence and Megan made out pretty well as far as toys go this year! I do believe they doubled the amount of space necessary for toys. It's a good thing James and I got more storage spaces a few weeks ago!

And, last but not least, a few updated pictures of Megan. No longwinded summary here, just pictures of her lazy smile (which is starting to show more often) and her in general (cleaning out Cadence's room unearthed some of my favorite newborn-sized pajamas, so yay!):

Clayborn Family Reunion Lunch

Last Saturday we enjoyed a family potluck lunch for James's grandmother's family. Lots of good food, a ton of people none of us really knew. Honestly, we only went so James's grandmother and mom could show off the kids. James's brother from Porterville also showed up with his little girl, Sydney, who's a little over a month younger than Cadence. They didn't play too well together, but no real fights broke out. At one point Cadence began herding Sydney away from us and out of sight. James's brother quickly rescued his daughter. Who knew what Cadence would do to the poor girl once she had her out of adult sight! Hehe.

And, as always, Cadence charmed every one who saw her. Megan slept quietly and got cooed over by all the great great aunts. I got frequently reminded how great I looked for having just given birth. And every one swore up and down both girls would end up with their dad's red hair (even though Cadence is currently going blond like me...). Anyway, a few pictures from the luncheon (and one that's just cute):

Megan and her great grandmother:

Cadence stealing her cousin's toy:

James and Cadence walking before the lunch (doncha LOVE Cady's red coat?):

And Cadence just playing in Nana's back yard:

Great-Grandpa Visit

We got a surprise visit from my dad's dad this week! He and his wife made it into town for a friend's funeral and he took advantage of the opportunity to come visit us. It's been about 2 1/2 years since we saw him last. He came by our apartment early in the morning to be sure he met two of his great granddaughters for the first time, just in case I couldn't make it to mom's house when he went by to visit. As it was, I did make it.

For what it's worth, Cadence did like Grandpa, she was just extremely tired and wanted the dancing Santa Claus:
Glad I made it to mom's, too. I've been agonizing over what to get/make my mom for Christmas. I finally got a great idea by flipping through a Deseret Books catalog. I didn't pick anything out of it to recreate/buy. Instead, I saw something that got my brain going until I came up with the idea. Now I just need to track down the stuff. I'll be sure to take pictures to show it off if it turns out. But the pictures won't be up until after Christmas.

Doctor appointment

I was so proud of myself. I got up at 8, got both girls up, fed, and dressed and made it to Megan's 8:40 appointment on time. :-) Seriously, there should have been a gold star waiting for me at the receptionist's desk. Alas, no congratulatory pat on the back, only a $10 co-pay and instructions on where to wait. *sigh*

Cadence charmed everyone from the get-go, and even stole the doctor's attention from Megan more than once. Hopefully Megan doesn't suffer too much from being in her big sister's attention-stealing shadow. Once Megan starts playing more, I'm sure the attention will be shared equally...

Anyway, chunky Megan has put on a full 1 pound and 12 ounces over the past 4 weeks, as well as almost 2 full inches. For those of you who do not wish to do the math:

Birth
Height: 19.25"
Weight: 6 lbs 1 oz

4 weeks:
Height: 21"
Weight: 7 lbs 13 oz

The doctor tried to get permission for me to get the H1N1 vaccination since I'm breastfeeding Megan and that's the only way to get her vaccinated from it, but as I am not on the same insurance as the girls, it was apparently a no go. However, since Cadence did get his attention, he did ask if she'd been vaccinated. I'm not super worried about H1N1, though I understand it can really hit little kids hard. At first I was wary of the new vaccine, but when Cady's pediatrician said he had done his own personal research and chose to get his kids vaccinated, I figured I could trust him (if he was just recommending it, I'd still be wary, but as he did the research and chose to get his kids vaccinated, it carries a little more weight with me). So, even though the appointment was for Megan, Cadence was the one getting pinned down and stuck with a needle. Poor girl.

She did get a sticker. Not for getting the shot. The nurses outside of Megan's appointment were just so charmed by her they insisted on giving her one. The nurse that gave her the shot helped me out to our car, since Cadence was having a melt down. We both laughed when she kept crying until the nurse began walking away. Once the "wicked woman" was gone, Cadence only had a few more sniffles to get out before my cell phone was enough of a distraction to get her talking and laughing again.

Anyway, to make up for the whole ordeal, James watched Megan for me and Cadence and I went on a shopping trip, just the two of us, to pick up one or two more things for Christmas. Christmas shopping isn't quite done. James and I still get to go stocking stuffer shopping at the dollar store (lots of fun, take $5-10 and go crazy getting random, pointless stocking stuffers for each other, and, well, no for Cadence and Megan too). And over the next week or so I'm going to be making candy, though I need to pester my mom about coming over and supervising me while I make divinity for the first time (well, second, the first time i totally didn't beat the egg whites long enough). But, part of some Christmas presents this year is chocolate covered pretzels, divinity, and butter toffee. Yum, yum!

Everyday updates

9pm at night and Cadence refuses to sit still long enough to fall asleep and I'm too tired to fight her on it. She went down for a nap late and woke up late as a result. So I expected a fight with bedtime. I should really just got off the computer and go hold her down and let her scream until she gives up and falls asleep. She's tired. She just won't admit it right now. Luckily Megan is far more cooperative.

Anyway, Megan is 4 weeks old today. Tomorrow we go in for a quick check-up. Kaiser likes to see newborns at 3 days and 2 weeks old, then again at 2 months for vaccinations. However, since insurance wasn't sorted out until she was past 2 weeks old, they decided to do a 1-month check up instead. So, we should be able to get some nice stats to see how much she's grown over the past 4 weeks. I think she's gotten bigger. At the very least, she doesn't look so silly in newborn sized clothes and the preemie sizes are getting too small (they were always just a touch too short, but now they're tight all around). I just wish the newborn sizes would fit properly. This in between stage kind of sucks.

Cadence has mastered a few new things. Most importantly, she's mastered the word "Uh-oh". It was cute... until she got smart alecky with it. It is no longer uncommon for her to drop something on purpose and cheerfully chirp "uh-oh". It's making bathtime messy. And dinner time.

Her love of books is proving helpful as well with other words, not that she has any of them mastered. She says "puppy" and "fish", but not when looking at the picture. Unfortunately, I think she thinks the words go with books in general, since "puppy" and "fish" are what show up most often in her favorite books. We took her to the pound to introduce her to some real puppies. She was fascinated. Oddly enough, she could have cared less about the small dogs. She was thrilled with the bigger ones and I had to fight to keep her fingers out of the cages. Of course, when she saw the cats, she was quick to meow at them, something she doesn't do half as often as she used to.

Speaking of cats, our household is one cat smaller now. Sadly, after a lot of talk, James and I agreed to find Conan a new home. He went to a new family who were thrilled to get him. We miss him, but our other two cats have really come out of their shells with the bully gone. Plus, without that 20lb monster under foot at all times, the apartment feels less cramped. Funny how that is. Now the only 20lb monster under foot is the one on two feet.

Oh yes, Cadence has also mostly mastered cups. She's still very talented at spilling them when she's bored with them, so she still gets sippy cups, but if you're drinking from a cup and she sees it, she demands her fair share. And as we learned at my mom's ward's Christmas party, if she sees two cups, well... she wants both of them (she attempted a third, but when every attempt failed, she settled for two). This was, of course, after she stole bites off of everyone's plate (she's also gotten really good at wielding a fork):

Kind of a cool heritage

Well, I got a new camera from some overly generous friends I met at the summer camp I worked at a few years ago, along with other goodies for Megan and Cadence. Either way, since they were so sweet with the camera, I naturally had to snap a few pictures just for them (If you're on Facebook you've seen these, sorry, no new ones yet), since they were so persistent in requesting some once they knew their package had arrived.

Just so you know, I am sharing their current Cherokee names with you (the name in parenthesis). James's paternal grandfather is Cherokee, full-blooded according to family gossip, but only half-blooded on paper (paternity is in question, apparently?), but fully raised. So he gave his granchildren Cherokee names and taught them a bit of the culture and legends as well. So, even though James may be only 1/16ths (a little more, actually, I believe he's 1/32nd from his mom's side as well?), he has more claim on Cherokee heritage than any other Eastern European heritage that makes of the modge-podge of the other 15/16ths he is.

Plus, heck, claiming that Cherokee blood lets him read the Book of Mormon as a family history rather than just scripture. It was pretty cool to be reading the Book of Mormon, realizing that James is a distant descendant and then looking at Cadence and realizing, she was now as well. Plus, it's fascinating to read Cherokee legends (we have a book of them) and see the correlations between their teachings and the Gospel. But, I'm getting off track here. Pictures:

Our little Turtle ("U'lanawa")

Our Hoot-Owl ("U'guku")

And sisters (the size difference is so surprising, even 3 weeks later)