Pictures!!!!

Cadence and Lynne did a beautiful photo shoot Monday morning. Despite a rocky start with Cadence (as depicted in the very first picture), they did lovely together and we got some absolutely adorable shots. Most of them weren't quite what you'd willingly dish out big money for to have framed on the wall, but most of them were definitely ones that you'd want saved on the computer to go "awww" over later on. Anyway, enjoy our low quality digital versions:

The weekend (So far)

We're having a blast! Erin is in town with Lynne, who we haven't seen since Christmas, so everyone's enjoying the visit.

Friday, Lynne and Cadence were introduced (well, re-introduced, but Cadence couldn't've cared less last time they met). It's been amusing to watch them interact with each other. Cadence loves all people her size, so seeing Lynne so often is a special treat. So many hours to spend with another little person! It seems being around a walking talking toddler has inspired Cadence to practice her walking more. Over the past few days she's begun walking more. She's still a little wobbly, but she happily takes half a dozen steps before giving up and going back to crawling, and she's enjoying showing off all sorts of new standing, crouching, and similar balancing tricks.

Erin made the most adorable dresses! One for Cadence (Lynne has a co-ordinating outfit) and the blessing dress for Megan. There will be pictures of both in the very near future, I promise! Both turned out beautiful. Cadence's dress is too stinking cute on her and I'm so excited for her to have another church dress. She's not too fond of it, but she doesn't like skirts. Haha. Megan's dress is lovely as well, but can't say whether or not Megan likes it yet...

Cadence has done really well given how badly her schedule has been the past two days. Friday I spent pretty much all day at my mom's house and talked Erin's ear off while Cadence and Lynne played endlessly with the bouncing Tigger doll. Then, Friday night we went to Britney's wedding reception. It was so nice. Of course, they started out with an amazing backdrop for the wedding. That backyard was simply amazing. Lots of people to say hi to as well, thanks to Britney being so stinking popular (I'm sure David is just as well liked!). I will try to scan in the copies of our "photo booth" pictures. I'm amused that I'm smiling in all of them, Cadence is only looking at the camera once and James has only a half-smile in one of them. Silly anti-camera family of mine...

Today was a little more normal. We spent the morning at home, then went over in the afternoon. Cadence chowed down on french fries and a chocolate shake and refused to show off her walking skills while Grandpa had his camera out to capture them. James went to help Emilee and Jeremy move their things into their new apartment, and had me turning green with envy when he described their kitchen. I hate my kitchen, lol. With a burning passion. Oh well, it's only temporary.

Then, we crashed the Kern County Fair. We lasted about two hours before Cadence got cranky and it was past Lynne's bedtime. First the hypnotist show, a must see when one visits the fair, in my opinion. The guy with the balloon fetish had us busting up laughing, especially when he impersonated Elvis while still have his shirt stuffed with balloons. Then, we visited the kid's center. Erin and Lynne played with the giant bubble makers, while we took Cadence to play with the big drums. A quick wander through the commercial vendors where nothing caught our eye (used to be so much more to see, now it's all jewelry displays...), though we all drooled over the smell of the cinnamon rolls when we first walked in. A final trip to the kids center with cotton candy and a funnel cake (Cadence turned down the cotton candy but demanded pieces of Erin's funnel cake) was the end of our night. Cadence attempted to eat some of the toys they had laying around.

Glad to be home, though. The crankier Cadence got, the more only me holding her was going to help. And I'm already carrying around an extra ten pounds on top of the eighteen she weighs. My poor back when we finally got to the car... it felt good just to sit and not be holding her for awhile. James was more than happy to hold her when I asked, but the later the night wore on, the less patience she had for that. Now that the night's over, I'm going to go enjoy a nice, hot, long shower that'll drain our water heater, then lay in bed and veg.

Tomorrow, Church! It's so great that I'm excited about going to Church again and really want to be there. It took awhile to get that attitude back. Then a tasty dinner of homemade Reuben sandwiches to celebrate Erin's birthday (4 days late). Mmm. Monday night there'll be pancit and loompia. Monday morning Cadence and Lynne will be getting their pictures done together professionally (thus the co-ordinating dresses Erin so skillfully made). And, sadly, on Tuesday, they will be going home again. I'm sure theyll be happy to go home and be reunited with Jeff, but I'll admit to being a little selfish and sulking about losing a friend to go hang out with just because. I need more of those. Especially ones with little ones Cadence's age. Ah well, there's always phone service! (Though I'm terrible about calling people...)

I think this may be the longest post I've written in this blog thus far, lol. Oh yes, quick note: Megan and I have our next appointment this Thursday. We're already in the every 2 weeks time. Three more appointments from now and we'll be going weekly. Eeks!

Recent Cute Anecdotes (aka Cady Stories!)

Okay, so after witnessing the darling thing I just did, I think I'll share a few anecdotes that have made me laugh over the past few days (when I so desperately needed it, Cadence is truly a blessing in my life lately):

-The cats have a fishing pole inspired cat toy, a long pole with a feathery boa at the end of it. Cadence had picked it up and was waving it around. Out of nowhere she starts squealing with laughter like this cat toy was the most amazing thing in the world and when I look, I discovered why: Taz and Conan were playing with the cat toy as happily as they did when James or I wiggle it. Cadence would wiggle it around and the nearest cat would leap at it, pin it down and then let it go for her to wiggle it around some more. She thought it was the most amazing thing in the world.

-Cadence spit up a bit all over her favorite blanket the other day. I rinsed it off immediately and then left it on the bathroom counter intending to wash it out better and give it to her later. Later that day, I had the bathroom door open, but the baby gate up so the cats could get in to use the litter box, but Cadence couldn't. Cadence is suddenly screaming at the gate, completely hysterical. Not knowing what upset it, I scooped her up and carried her into the living room to distract her. She calmed down, then immediately crawled back to the bathroom to stand at the gate and scream hysterically again. We repeated the process, and only on my third trip back to rescue her did I realize her blanket was in plain view but out of reach and it was ticking her off. On the plus side, it was washed last night and dried overnight and Cadence went completely bonkers when she saw it this morning. (Hopefully naptimes and bedtime will go a little more smoothly now that she has it back?)

-Cadence has started doing a headstand thing. She'll put her head on the floor and then lift her butt up in the air. The other day I glanced over at her and she was grinning at me from between her legs, upside-down. I busted up laughing so hard that she did it over and over again that night just for the reaction. I, of course, complied and giggled every time she did it all night.

And the cutest of all:

-I was laying on the floor with Cadence while she crawled around and played. As Megan was wiggling pretty actively, my shirt was rolled up a bit and my hand was on it. Out of nowhere, Cadence crawled up, gave my belly a big slobbery kiss, and rested her head against my stomach and grinned big. Megan got really quiet for a second, then suddenly rolled her entire weight towards Cadence. I know it was probably all coincidence, but at the same time, considering I accuse them of "plotting" before Megan was conceived, it was a very cute moment, and one must wonder if the two of them have a connection I don't know about. It's nice to consider. In a corny train of thought: Perhaps Megan's spirit was visiting her temporal body for awhile and Cadence came over to say hello because she recognized her. Sweet idea, eh?

Non-kid-related Updates

Well, how about some James & Sarah updates here? Seriously, all I ever blog about is Cadence and Megan (more Cadence than Megan for obvious reasons). So, a few things James and I have been up to recently:

James is excelling in his two machining courses at BC this semester. Due to his experience with CNC machines, his manual machinist teacher often turns to James to answer questions he's not 100% sure on. And if another student ever asks a question the professor knows his "working students" know the answer to, James is usually the one that answers the other student's question. James is learning a few things he didn't know before, and in fact should be more capable of running a manual machine once the class is over, which makes him a more valuable machinist in general.

Of course, machining is quickly becoming our back-up plan. After a lot of prayer and talking it out, James has been talking to a Navy recruiter recently. Work hasn't been too good lately, and there's no sign of things improving. James was enlisted in the Marines right out of high school and has wanted to return to the military since then, so this seems to be the right time. We did look at other branches, but the Navy is what we first felt good about and, I'm thinking Heavenly Father did a little tweaking here, the Navy's the only branch that is working with us. The other three branches all had major roadblocks. So I think the Navy is where we are meant to be. It'll be a little while, and once James enlists that means he has to leave us behind for a few months. It's not the most ideal time, but they're more than happy to put off his basic training until after Megan is here.

As for me, I have very little of note to report. I've been "working" for KGB online. I use the term working loosely. It pays little ($5 for two hours worth of work, give or take), but it's a lot of fun, and that $5/night adds up eventually. Basically, KGB has people text in questions and will send them back an answer. I'm the go-between that reads the question, searches the web, and answers the question as accurately as possible. I get ten cents for every question I answer. It really is rather fun now that I'm getting the hang of it, and I think I might start doing 15 minute shifts during Cadence's downtime during the day as well.

I also just got back from Britney's bridal shower. I wasn't initially planning to go. I had no ride, no babysitter, and I was in a pretty rotten mood all morning and afternoon. But another friend called to ask about the shower and then agreed to give me a ride, so I went. So glad I did. Not only do I have a bowl of Hershey kisses to make myself sick off of, but I got out of the house, got to socialize with a bunch of people I haven't seen in awhile, and Cadence charmed everyone she met. I'd say it's a special skill of Cadence's, but I think it's just babies in general. Plus, it's nice to get out of the house and do something different every now and then. I'm definitely in a stay-at-home rut.

Oops, just got an email from Otto asking me to start my KGB shift a little early. Maybe I'll make an extra $1 tonight. Haha.

Megan Update (there's not much)

Well, Megan and I are firmly in the last stretch. Last Thursday marked 27 weeks along and 3 months until our due date. If she comes out as early as her sister did we've got just under 11 weeks left. At most, we've got 14 1/2 weeks until she joins our happy little family.

Today we had our doctor's appointment again today. From here on out we go every 2 weeks instead of once a month. She's squirming like crazy. The doctor had a hard time getting her heartbeat because of her positioning. I tried to tell him he was putting the doppler right where her knees were and he'd have better luck from the other side, but doctor's don't listen too good. He did find it eventually and she was so pleased with his success she rolled over to give him a better listen. She's so thoughtful!

We were hoping for an ultrasound to take a peek at her today, but the doctor didn't do one. He did order the glucose test for me, though. Yay? Hopefully I have more success in keeping the drink down than I did last time. He ordered one at 9 weeks, standard procedure for him, but I was dealing with mild morning sickness at the time and a cold, sugary drink on an empty stomach was just asking for trouble. This time, the morning sickness comes and goes, so if I wait an hour after waking up, I should be okay with keeping it down this time around. As for the ultrasound, we're keeping our fingers crossed for our next appointment (which needs to be rescheduled). I'd love to get another sneak peek at her before she shows up!

Megan is definitely more active than her older sister. Cadence would be quiet for long periods of time and then get so active it almost hurt on occasion. Megan, however, is constantly squirming. In fact, those quiet moments are as rare as Cadence's active moments were. Something tells me I'm going to have those "restless nights" everyone warned me about when Cadence was born. I couldn't understand what the fuss was. Cadence slept beautifully from day one. She woke up, sure, but she'd always happily go back to sleep after a nighttime feeding. I think Megan might take it upon herself to teach me what it's all about.

And last but not least (okay, it actually is "least" as far as importance in this entry, and yes, stretchmarks were edited out, :-P):

First kiss already!

During church today, Cadence refused to let me sit in Sunday School, so we once again ended up in the foyer where she happily chased the other kids that are too old to sit quietly but too young to be stuck in Nursery. First, she cornered a little girl who was fiercely protecting her bottle of water, until she was distracted by the other little boy crawling around. For the next 10-15 minutes, those two chased each other up and down the hallways. At one point, they even knocked on a classroom door and interrupted a primary class before I could stop them.

And, the little boy paused during their escapade and offered her a sloppy, open-mouthed kiss, which she happily leaned forward to accept and return in kind. *sigh* I chose not to break the news to her new suitor that she'd held another little boy's hand just last week. Flirt. Her daddy is going to have to watch her from the get-go!

She's also learned how to wave, though she hasn't figured out when is the appropriate time to do so. She's also combined her version of the word "Hi" with the action. She will do her backwards wave and say "Hi" over and over again until she's board, whether there's actually someone to say hi to or not. We tried to get her to do it when she'd see a new person as an actual greeting, but she only does it when the mood strikes. It's still cute. Almost as cute as me asking "all done" at the highchair or in the bath and her responding with a slurred "Yish!" Obviously she has no clue what she's doing or saying, so I'm not claiming "first word", but it is absolutely adorable nonetheless.

First Steps?!

It's official, Cadence is taking baby steps.

Naturally, I missed her first ones. I was in the kitchen deboning and skinning boiled chicken for future use and Cadence was mad that the baby gate was locking her in the front rooms with James and away from me. James was doing his best to distract her, but she was super pissed.

The next thing I know, James is laughing because she was so mad that she stopped thinking and walked from the computer to where he was sitting (a very short trip, nothing overly impressive) to hang on his leg and tell him how upset she was. And I'm in the kitchen completely surprised and asking again and again if James is really saying what I think he's saying.

Yes, Cadence took her first steps.

And I was super bummed about missing them, until James and I managed to trick her into it. I sat down to write this blog post, but Cadence was at my knee squealing for my full attention. Walked back into the living room to distract her with toys. James held out his hands and her favorite toy (her glow worm). Realizing what he was coaxing her to do, I moved my leg out of her way and leaned back enough that I was an easily accessible hand hold, and she happily took a step towards James before lowering herself into crawling position to finish the trip.

Eeks! I thought I had at least another month before we got to this point. Guess not. Can't say I'm surprised, though. Cadence has been ready to run since she first discovered she could move. So, yes, a week shy of 10 months old, Cadence has taken her first steps. Aww.

Projects and Birthdays

Not surprisingly, turning 24 feels about as momentous as turning 19 or 20 did. Even 18. Somebody should have told Cadence that it was my birthday and thus I was due some special treatment. She did treat me to an uninterrupted night's sleep, but that meant she was waking me up at 7am, when I've gotten used to 8:30am. So spoiled, am I.

I didn't get much "present wise", but birthday's haven't been about presents for awhile now. I got a few pamper me things with a cash gift from my dad. My mom and Papa Steve hosted a barbecue for me last night and there was cheesecake to top it all off. James made me the necklace from two entries back. And Carla made me a fun little candy card, so I have chocolate to last me a few days and Dr Pepper to last me a few hours... Haha. My mom also babysat Cadence for a couple hours tonight, so James and I ordered pizza and had pizza and a movie in bed.

And as a special treat to myself, I got the necessities to start a project. It's a simple project. Wooden letters to spell out their names. Unfortunately, they were temporarily out of stock when it came to N's. Anyway, step 1 is pictured below. None of them are finished. The striped letters will have thinner stripes criss-crossing in an almost plaid pattern, the final E in Cadence's name has a stenciled butterfly that'll be done in white, the D will have stenciled leaves in purple, and I'm trying to decide whether to add something to the polka dots on the first C (the N will also have polka dots). I need a finer paintbrush to do some of the detail work. And I'll be hanging them with ribbon eventually.

Yay, I'm having fun with this. I love having projects. I'll post the finished product, naturally, but here's step 1 of however many:

Talk about "feeding herself"

Cadence got ahold of the little thing of Gerber peach puffs that her Dama gave us. I've been using them as distractions, er, I mean, snacks in Sacrament and Relief Society. Up until now, it's even made a great rattle, except...


... She figured out how to open it. She's dumped the entire container around her, is happily playing with the empty container and it's new cool sounds, and randomly picking up a puff to either put in her mouth or offer to Taz, who is dutifully watching Cadence for me to make sure she stays out of trouble. I guess she likes the peach puffs and didn't see Cadence dumping it as something worth coming to tell me about, lol.

Those two have the strangest relationship...

9 (and a half) month check up

Cadence's check-up was this morning. She was particularly clingy and fussy. For some reason she does NOT like her doctor and freaked out every time he attempted to touch her. WHen he was using the stethoscope she was angrily pushing it away because she did not want anything related to him touching her. And it took us three tries to get her weight because she was so determined to get off the scale and be held by me again.

Her stats on July 1st (for comparison):

Height: 27"
Weight: 16lb 2oz
Head Circumference: 16.725"

And stats as of September 1st (exactly 2 months later, convenient):

Height: 27.5"
Weight: 17lb 7oz
Head Circumference: 16.5" (huh?)

So, she's dropped in height (from 75th to 40th percentile), but stayed steadily around the 25th percentile for weight (actually dropped to 20th, but given her recent stomach bug, we'll say she's stayed steady). The doctor agrees that from the milestones I've told him she's reached that she's a bit ahead when it comes to motor skills, but just at average when it comes to social skills, if not a little bit behind. But I'm not concerned and neither is he, and even if he expressed concern I'd probably ignore it until she was drastically behind socially. Though, I suppose getting her in social situations might help her develop a desire to hone those social skills...

And I discover the pitfalls of not asking more questions about prescription medicines. The doctor asked if I was giving her the vitamins he'd prescribed at her last appointment. I admitted I hadn't so he renewed the prescription for me. I decided I'd be a responsible mommy and get the prescription filled right away this time. Ended up paying $17 for a 3-month supply of vitamins and was feeling pretty good about myself, until I caught sight of a brightly colored box of infant vitamin drops sitting on their OTC shelves for a fraction of the price I'd just paid. $4 for one box off the shelf, while I paid $17 for two from behind the counter. Oh well, you live and learn, right?