Moving Tomorrow

Tonight, the computer gets packed up. One of the very last things to be boxed up. There's still the odds and ends, most of which will be packed neatly in trash bags at the last moment. But for the most part, the apartment is completely packed up and waiting.

We signed our lease this afternoon. Tomorrow morning we do the move-in inspection and walk through and get our keys and being our move.

It's going to be a busy day. Tomorrow I also need to find a way to exchange Megan's crib. We just learned the used crib we bought in January was recalled in February. So Megan's getting a new crib to go in her new room.

But, we'll be offline for awhile. Issues with getting cable and internet set up at the new place have crept up already. My track record with getting utilities up and running is not good, despite being on the ball. So, we'll see.

Wish us luck! We'll have pictures of the new place up... if I can find my camera. Despite packing up the entire apartment, I have yet to find out where Cadence stashed it.

Special Hymn

I think this hymn will forever have a special meaning to me. I don't think it's possible for me to hear this song and not think of my uncle. I can't wait to see him again.

Moving around

For a family of three (almost four) mobile people, our apartment has simply become too small. It has quickly gone from annoying to almost unbearable, as Cadence gets more and more mobile and Megan begins taking up more and more room.

After a little bit of apartment hunting, James and I have turned in rental applications. So, unless we're denied for some reason, we will be moving this upcoming Saturday. We're both a bit sad that we have to leave the ward we're in, but there's so few apartments in our price range within the ward boundaries (truly, we looked!), let alone ones that allow pets. We did, however, find a place with considerably more living space that's not all the way across town.

I'm excited. I love everything about this move. Less rent, more space, downstairs apartment (very helpful with two little girls to lug around), right off of the parking lot, a playground nearby, patio that actually allows barbecues, bigger kitchen (with pantry). The only downsides are a small step down in neighborhood value and leaving the ward we both like. However, I know a few people in the new ward, so I know there's plenty of good people there as well.

Anyway, we'll be loading up the van and moving this upcoming Saturday. Not early, early Saturday morning is for signing the lease and finalizing the organization in the apartment. Around eleven we expect to be loading up the moving truck. And then I'll be returning to the "old apartment" throughout the next week to get it all spic and span (so if anyone wants to keep me company and help out in the mornings anytime over the next week... lol)

Hopefully next Monday night will be an even more exciting blog post about an even more exciting move. But no details are being revealed to the general public until we're 100% certain. So, :-P

Missing Camera

I keep putting off and putting off blog posts because I haven't found my camera and blog posts without pictures of my kids are just... meh.

Anyway, a rundown of the past week and cute stories, I suppose. Sans pictures, I'm afraid.

Saturday, we went to a family friend's first birthday party for their son. It was a small get together of family and close friends, so we were happy to be included. Cadence scared a few people by wandering too close to the barbecue once or twice, but for the most part she was content to steal my hamburger, my chips, my hot dog, my drink, and my macaroni salad. There was a bounce house. It was cleared out for Cadence to venture in and not be knocked over by older kids. As soon as she was in there, though, she freaked out. And even Mommy climbing in after her did not soothe her. So we wandered out, she refused to sit still to get her shoes back on, and ran over to play with Ben's new puppy, Blue.

I'm thrilled listening to Cadence begin stringing words together. In church, the other day, when I closed the door so she couldn't escape the Relief Society room, she looked up at me and said: "No bye-bye?" And recently she's begun saying "Hi, Taz" or "Hi, Megan" or "Baby Megan". It's definitely a start.

Megan is getting mobile. She's only 5 months old! Nothing on purpose yet. She rolls around a lot and wiggles enough to scoot herself forward. Mostly, though, if you set a toy in front of her that she wants, she lifts her arms and legs and attempts to fly towards it. Thus far, she's had little success with flying. But I expect she'll begin having success with scooting sooner than I'd like her to. That's normally how it goes, right?

Nothing truly exciting or monumental has happened too recently. We're just enjoying the quiet life for the moment. We're hoping things get exciting over the next few weeks, but that's mostly due to waiting on some final decisions on something we've been pursuing since last September. And, there's plans for a move next month. Tomorrow we go apply for another apartment with considerably more space than what we have now. And with having almost two mobile little girls, more room is a necessity! If things work out as we expect, we'll be submitting our 30 days notice to our current place tomorrow afternoon.

A Day at CALM

We got a great deal on a family membership at CALM here in Bakersfield. For $14 we were able to get a year long membership for our whole family. But that's not all, the family membership comes with free admissions and discounted admissions at several museums and zoos in California (including half off at the LA zoo and free admissions to China Lakes Naval Museum and even a zoo in Texas!). Anyway, if anyone else is curious about this great bargain, check it out here. There's also some great deals on Catalina ferries on that site (I know some of my blog visitors might be needing those this upcoming summer...) and the Monterey Bay Aquarium (if anyone's heading up that way).

And for the mom's out there, explore that site a bit further and there's discount spa treatments available in town. Check that out here. There's also Vegas trips, California hotels, Frugatti's gift certificates, and other steals and deals worth investigating.

Anyway, we've had the certificate laying around for about a month now and decided we should probably go activate it. So James woke up early and we made a trip out to CALM. It was a fair way to spend the morning. Cadence exhausted herself, which, of course, was the whole purpose of the trip! She was fascinated by the large white pelican outside of the reptile house, the first animal we saw. It took a lot of coaxing to get her to leave that display. She could've cared less about the snakes and was thrilled with the fish. She couldn't pick out any of the birds of prey, but she did see the bald eagle (kind of hard to miss). And she did see a falcon eating what was left of it's dinner (luckily she didn't recognize what it was). The bears were being boring so she could care less, but the turtles were moving and she loved them.

Her favorite part was the children's area with the goats, rabbits, and pony. She refused to follow us back out to the main part of the zoo and had to be carried and as soon as she was put down, she tried running back inside. When we wouldn't let her do that, she then insisted on pushing Megan's stroller for us. So James and I stood on either side holding a handle and steering while she pushed. We strolled by what will soon be the mountain lion/bobcat exhibit and bypassed the overcrowded children's playground.

Next time, we'll have to have some cash on hand so that we can try out the children's train ride! And, hopefully, next time I'll have figured out where Cadence stashed my camera so I can share lots of pictures. Right now the only picture I have is on my phone and I haven't figured out how to get those onto the computer yet.

Too cute not to share

Recently, Cadence has wanted to contribute more to taking care of Megan for me. She'll happily burp Megan for me whenever she sees her sister on her belly. She'll offer Megan drinks from her doll's bottle or from her own sippy cup and always offers her food to her sister as well. She figured out the top buckle of the car seat and always wants to buckle her sister in. If Megan gets fussy because we're taking too long to get moving after putting her in her car seat, Cadence'll squat down and entertain her. She'll even offer her special blanket for sharing if Megan's fussy (though she throws a fit if Megan is using it while NOT fussy). And recently, she's also begun wanting to hold Megan, even though Megan is now only a handful of inches and pounds smaller than her big sister. Still, it makes for some cute pictures (obviously Megan looks a tad bigger because she's closer to the camera, but the size difference is really minimal now...):

(the blurry hand is because Cadence was patting Megan's belly)

Easter Day has come and gone

A relatively quiet Easter has passed here in the Smith Household. We did fill Easter baskets for both girls, though most of what was in Megan's basket has been commandeered by Cadence. I had them up on the table in an effort to have Cadence wait to go through them until James was awake and could enjoy her going through it. Of course, in the few minutes it took me to get Megan out of bed, she saw the baskets, climbed up onto the chair and began going through it. Her favorite things were the books that were tucked in each basket.
She was confused about the camo eggs that we bought. She knew shaking them made a cool noise and she was okay with that for awhile. Then I opened one for her. When she saw that it had actual candy inside she was thrilled. She couldn't get the others to open, so she'd eat a few m&ms and then go back to trying to figure out the secret. One dropped and it popped open as it hit the floor. Before I knew it she'd thrown the rest on the floor in an attempt to open them all.
Of course, we had to take at least one picture of Megan. She posed nicely with the stuffed bunny that was in her basket. She's always the one that'll smile with almost no work on my part. She spent Easter morning laying on the floor.
We decided cinnamon rolls would be a good breakfast for Easter/General Conference. Cadence loved the cinnamon rolls. She ate two of them on her own and then tried to climb onto the table to get to the pan that had the rest of them.
The rest of the day was pretty quiet, as well. We enjoyed General Conference. Cadence would always stop whatever she was doing once the choir started singing. The singing is always my favorite part of General Conference. But I also really like pretty much every talk given Saturday morning. My favorite was the second one, can't remember who it was by. But I really enjoyed it, nonetheless.

After General Conference, we went to Nana's house for dinner and birthday cake (Aunt Robyn turned 17 a week ago). Cadence has her two top canines and her fourth molar all threatening to cut through at any given moment. Her Motrin wore off about the same time we got there. However, she loved the pancit and loompia. She probably overate, though, because she turned up her nose at the cake and ice cream. Between teething and probably a sore tummy (we tried limiting her chocolate intake, but she kept sneaking more. I don't know how she got her hands on it all the time!), Cadence was miserable as the night wore on.

No pictures of Nana's house, but Nana did get a video of us using Megan as a toy and playing keepaway with Cadence. We'd put Megan in her walker. Her legs are still too short to reach the ground. Cadence loves pushing the walker around though and Megan eats up any attention her big sister gives her. Of course, being the cruel adults we are, we began pushing Megan around the room and keeping her out of Cadence's reach. Megan thought it was great. Cadence was laughing until it lasted a little too long. When it went on too long for Cadence's choice, she threw herself to the floor (carefully, since Nana has hardwood floors) and cried. Oops.

We finally got Cadence home, in the bath, read her a book, sang her a song, and snuggled her a bit. Then we said prayers and she was tucked in and passed out within moments. I came out from putting her to bed to find James entertaining Megan (World of Warcraft addict in the making!):

Just life

Nothing too exciting going on here. Saturday we went to lunch at Johns Incredible Pizza. Cadence loved having access to so much food. I got her a plate with mandarin oranges and two slices of pizza. She gobbled up the oranges and wanted more, but satisfied herself with the pizza until I'd fetched her some more (along with some peaces, a cheesecake sweet, and some rice). Afterward, we got about $5 worth of "tokens" and tried to find some things to entertain Cadence. For the most part she hated all of it, except for the merry-go-round. It was going fast enough I couldn't get a clear picture of her on the horse until I jumped up on the rider so that the background blurred, instead of her.

Megan has finally discovered her thumb. I'm not sure what to think of this. So far Cadence only sucks her thumb when she's tired and has her blanket with her. I am hoping that getting rid of the blanket might break the thumb habit when the time comes. Hopefully Megan follows the same trend, except she hasn't yet developed an obsession with a blanket yet... On another happy note, Megan's also discovered toys! Finally! She could've cared less about them, but suddenly today she was grabbing them and chewing on them. I'm pleased. While I love that she loves people, being able to put her down and let her be entertained by toys is going to be a life saver.

She's rolling. Well, she has the ability to roll, she just prefers being on her side so she'll roll onto her side and chew on whatever blanket is the nearest. I've tkaen to tossing a blanket over her because she loves chewing on them so much. Of course, both girls are stripped down to diapers by the time dinner comes around nowadays, so no overheating. It may only have had a high of 76 in Bakersfield today, but with the sun hitting our glass patio door in the afternoon, it's a fight to keep my living room at 80 degrees.

My goodness my girls are getting so big, though. Megan stretched out to her full length today and I was astounded. She'd put on 7 inches by her 4 month appointment. I should measure her and see if she's grown any more. And I suppose we're getting to the point that I should consider introducing solids. She has no apparent interest in food, though. Although I did give her a taste of brown gravy the other day, just a bit on the tip of my finger. She tried to suck my finger off. However, rice cereal is not as tasty as brown gravy, so she may not be as eager...

And finally, Cadence's camera obsession resulted in some recorded video. There was a cute minute long one where you could hear her babbling and talking, but it was all black screen since she'd dumped it to go through the rest of my purse. So we'll share this six second ditty with a good shot of her leg and diaper:

Perfection is...

... 2 o'clock in the morning, half-asleep, rocking in a chair, nursing one daughter and watching as the other one stirs in her sleep.

... coming through the door after only being gone a moment and being greeted enthusiastically in fluent gibberish.

... 8 o'clock at night, one daughter sucking her thumb in her crib and cooing herself to sleep, the other being rocked as we sing "I am a Child of God", on the verge of falling to sleep but fighting it with all she has.

... that quiet moment when two fussy girls have finally settled down, one being rocked in one arm and the other content to snuggle against your side with her blanket.

... 7 o'clock in the morning, walking into the nursery and being greeted by two little girls that starting grinning, giggling and talking just because they see it's you.

... a squeal of laughter simply because you crossed your eyes and made a funny sound.

... 7 o'clock at night, listening to one daughter point to her sister's eyes, ears, mouth and nose and having the little sister grin big because she loves the attention from her big sister.

Yes, my day's are pretty much overflowing with perfect moments. I am so very blessed.

Daddy's extra day off

James was supposed to go do something in LA this Monday, but circumstances had him have to put the trip off until next week (we can hope). Anyway, since he'd requested the time off using his personal hours, he figured he might as well take the day off and spend an extra day with us. We were all pretty happy with that arrangement! He works such long, weird hours, that sometimes it seems we just don't have enough time with him.

To celebrate, we went to Hart Park for an impromptu picnic. We wanted somewhere that Cadence could run around and let me take all sorts of cute pictures. And James also wanted to let Khloe explore somewhere beyond our patio and the grass under our stairs. So we packed ham sandwiches, juice boxes, cookies and goldfish and went for a drive. We picked an area near a play set and let Cadence sit on the table for easy access to her food:
Megan wasn't left out of the fun. She spent a bit of time in her car seat while we all ate, but we got her out and let her enjoy the sunshine and fresh air and be passed around from person to person (which she always enjoys). She was so content she didn't fuss the entire time, even though her lunchtime feeding was pushed back by nearly an hour.
Cadence loved the swings. She probably spent half the time we were at the park being pushed. Naturally, the one doing the pushing had to try to grab her toes, tickle her belly or growl at her as she got too close. It only made her laugh even more:
We let her romp around the play set as well. While she preferred running around on the grass and sand, she's recently become fascinated with stairs and showed off her latest achievement by climbing up the stairs to the slide all by herself. Well, Khloe helped... She tried to show Cadence it was possible to do it without holding on the bars, but Cadence decided she preferred her way for now.
At the top of the slide she, James and Khloe goofed off for a bit, then James got her set up to go down the slide. She loved it, so long as someone was there to catch her at the bottom of the slide. Khloe also went down the slide in James's lap, but she wasn't nearly as thrilled when she reached the bottom:
After we'd done everything at the play place, we walked across the park to check out the ducks and geese and maybe feed them some leftover goldfish crackers. Cadence was fascinated by the water and insisted on pointing it out to her dad (in case he hadn't noticed...)
We didn't get to feed many ducks or geese. We did have two follow us for awhile and we did toss some crackers to them, which they gobbled up. However, Cadence was more interested in testing out the duck's floating ability. She was very curious as to whether she could just walk off the edge and onto the water. We decided to not let her explore that particular curiosity too far. Since she was rather insistent, we had to leave after only a short time. She was not very happy, until she noticed all the flowers on the ground along our way back to the car:
Ultimately, that was the highlight of our day. We had a visit to the bookstore where Cadence, Megan and I flipped through every pop-up book they had in stock. And a trip to Walmart and FoodsCo for a few things. We also tried Jamba Juice, but Cadence was getting fussy at that point and didn't want any of it. Turns out, her fourth molar is popping through and the second half of her most recent two is also cutting. She was a pretty miserable little girl by the time bathtime rolled around.

Her misery was only made worse when neither James nor myself understood what she was crying for for the last hour before bedtime. All we knew was she was inconsolable and kept stopping to say, very clearly "bye-bye". Finally, we figured it out and let her go play outside in the grass for the last few minutes before bathtime itself. She wasn't too happy with us for bringing her back inside, but once she was in the water with her sister she was happy once again. And she always loved our bedtime story routine, complete with a few primary songs and a prayer before she got to lay in bed and talk to Taz (who always keeps her company as she falls asleep, it's rather sweet, actually).

Cadence has an obsession with cameras and cell phones. I understand it's a common fascination. She's figured out the playback capability of the camera and is quite skilled at pressing random buttons to figure out what they do. Behold, Cadence's budding photography skills:


And before I end this, I got a new diaper bag in the mail to replace the icky ones the hospital sent me home with. Only took me a year or so to actually buy one for myself, but... it's tote style, which I prefer (not a fan of too many pockets). It's big enough to fit as much as I might need without being overstuffed. It comes with a separate little bag for diapers and wipes so I don't have to lug the whole thing to do a quick diaper change. And... it's pretty, lol.