Wil & Regina

Happy 3rd Birthday, Aurora!!

2012-01-25T21:51:00.002-05:00

At 5:21am three years ago, our sweet fireball entered the world. If you want to read more about that, check out our past birthday posts:
Birth Announcement
Tiny Baby Cry
1st Birthday Post
2nd Birthday post

She had fun checking out the decorations.

Balloons on her chair!!!

Listening to a birthday recording from Momma (my mom).

She listened to it over and over and over.

Finally, once Wil got home, she got to OPEN the PRESENTS!!!

She had to wait patiently while we got Skype set up with Wil's parents.:) Isn't technology great?

Her favorite gift, by far, is the Ikea train set. So glad we bought the extra track! She and Wil opened it up immediately and started playing with it.

Then, after dinner, came the good part!

Flower cake!!

I'm quite proud of this cake (can you tell?). ;)

I love her waiting there with her fork.

Happy birthday, Aurora!!

~Regina

Chaos...or is it Murphey's Law?

2012-01-19T16:22:00.000-05:00

Some days you just have to laugh rather than cry.

I was chopping carrots for beef soup/stew when my finger slipped and I cut it. As I ran to grab a paper towel to put on it, Quinn started crying. I left him where he was to tend to my wound and found Aurora in the bathroom with scissors, trying to cut her hair again. She was supposed to be in her room cleaning up.

I took the scissors away from her, which initiated an immediate meltdown. I took care of my finger, carried her to her room, which caused her to wail even more and returned to the kitchen to comfort Quinn. Then I sat down and laughed at the wailing kiddos and my throbbing finger and my piece of very, very flat bread that failed to rise this morning. Hopefully dinner will be good....

Chaos at the Wades! Anyone want to join us? ;)

~Regina

And Now...A Message from Our Sponsors (or not)

2012-01-18T12:30:00.000-05:00

Dear Friends and Family,

Today we thank you for reading our small little corner of the Internet. The stories and pictures we post here we hope cheer your heart and bring a smile to your face.

There is however an attack on every little corner of the Internet brewing in the House of Representatives in a bill named SOPA (Stop Online Privacy Act) and in the Senate in a bill named PROTECT IP (PIPA). The bills threaten the fabric of the Internet and freedom. We ask that you consider taking action to stop these bills.

A simple explanation from Wikipedia:

"SOPA and PIPA would put the burden on website owners to police user-contributed material and call for the unnecessary blocking of entire sites. Small sites won't have sufficient resources to defend themselves. Big media companies may seek to cut off funding sources for their foreign competitors, even if copyright isn't being infringed. Foreign sites will be blacklisted, which means they won't show up in major search engines. SOPA and PIPA would build a framework for future restrictions and suppression.

In a world in which politicians regulate the Internet based on the influence of big money, Wikipedia — and sites like it — cannot survive.

Congress says it's trying to protect the rights of copyright owners, but the 'cure' that SOPA and PIPA represent is worse than the disease. SOPA and PIPA are not the answer: they would fatally damage the free and open Internet."

Learn more about SOPA and PROTECT IP Details

Take action through the Electronic Frontier Foundation

~Wil and Regina

More Comparisons

2012-01-17T09:02:00.000-05:00

I've kept doing the month-to-month comparisons of Aurora and Quinn. Here are the past 3 months!

~Regina

Momma and Poppa Came to Visit!!

2012-01-11T22:00:00.001-05:00

Momma and Poppa came to visit! And what was the first thing Aurora wanted? For Momma to read her a book. :D

Little Quinn was a bit unsure of who these people were, but he warmed up to them pretty quickly. He even woke up earlier than Aurora one morning, so he got the first snuggles!

But Aurora wasn't far behind...

Going places all together was a bit difficult now that we have a second carseat in the car. But we are all just fine with squeezing close together.

And with free babysitting around, Mommy and Daddy got to go on a date! We almost got to go by ourselves, but Quinn decided that bottles are the scourge of the earth, so he couldn't be left behind. He was a good little tag-along, though, so we didn't mind. (Not that we would have, anyways.)

Aurora got a special treat when Momma painted her fingernails and toenails--and put some pretty stickers on them, too!

Quinn got to "meet" his cousin James through skype. It was fun to see how the babies, even though they're 6 months apart, still "talked" to each other. It was good to see my sister, too. ;)

And Quinn snuggled with whoever was available to hold him. What a sweet boy.

We were sad to see Momma and Poppa go, but very, very glad that they got to come!

~Regina

Cute Kiddos

2012-01-08T13:40:00.000-05:00

We built a little house of foam tiles...

Aurora was thrilled. It stayed up for 2 days before it got knocked over. :)

And sweet little Quinn...

He's getting bigger every day.

Hehe. Silly boy.

~Regina

Cookies!

2012-01-05T13:30:00.001-05:00

Aurora was excited to help me make cookies on Christmas Eve. :)

Her job was to put M&Ms on the cookies...

She loves deciding which colors to put on the cookies. The silly girl loved to separate the green and red. Apparently the colors shouldn't be mixed.

Then she dumped the M&Ms onto the cookie sheet. Heh.

All done!

Mmmm! :)

~Regina

Our Talkative Little Quinn

2012-01-02T12:12:00.001-05:00

Quinn sure is a talker! I tried to cut this 3 minute movie down, but finally gave up and posted the whole thing. Make sure to give it some time to load...

~Regina

Oh, and just for the record, this post was published at 12:12 on 1/2/12. ;) Happy New Year!

2012 Picture a day blog!

2012-01-01T21:06:00.000-05:00

I have started my second picture a day blog!

Snapshots of 2012

~Regina

On Trying to Take Photos of Two Kids...

2011-12-30T14:28:00.000-05:00

I tried to get some pictures of Quinn and Aurora together a few days ago. It went something like this...

Quinn: Mommy, why are you doing this to me??!?

~Regina

Baby Sweetness

2011-12-27T14:25:00.000-05:00

Our sweet boy is a smiley one! I love dressing him and changing his diaper because he's so responsive!

He also loves to be sung to and will try to sing along! I don't normally like to post recordings of me singing, but he's just too cute to keep this stored away.

~Regina

Christmas 2011

2011-12-25T20:27:00.000-05:00

Aurora just waking up (at her regular 8:01 AM).

While she waited for breakfast to be ready, she played with her newly-expanded Little People Nativity Set. Thank you to Grandpa and Grandma Wade for the Shepherds!

We worked hard to only open one present at a time and to take the time to look at each person's gift before moving on to the next one. Aurora got tired of being patient by the end of the gift-opening time, but she did a great job trying to be patient. :)

Each gift was exciting (especially Quinn's!).

Aurora was particularly thrilled with the matching pjs from Momma and Poppa VG. :)

A Richard Scary's Busy Town Matching Game from Aunt Debbie and family! Aurora is very eager to play games, so getting one that is just for her is very exciting to her.

And Quinn got a beautiful quilt sewn by Auntie Jessica!

We finished off our day with watching Frosty the Snowman.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

~Regina

More Snow!

2011-12-24T13:00:00.001-05:00

A few days ago, we had another nice snowfall. It was only an inch or two, but Aurora had a blast playing in it.

Tasting it!

I love how her expressions are becoming more varied (and a bit more grown up).

And, no, she was not really dressed for playing in the snow. We were visiting friends and hadn't expected enough snow to fall for us to play in it.

~Regina

Quinn's Type of Fun

2011-12-21T14:16:00.000-05:00

Quinn loves to have fun. He's becoming quite the smiley little fellow!

He's working on figuring out the jumper. I think Aurora was more excited about it than he was, but not by much!

He also loves watching the baby in the mirror.

What a sweetheart!

~Regina

First Snow!

2011-12-18T14:16:00.000-05:00

A week or so ago, we had our first snow. We were all excited to go out and play in the tiny flakes drifting down from the sky...

Quinn, of course, had no idea what was going on, but he responded to our excitement.

He blinked every single time a snowflake touched his eye lashes. :)

Aurora remembers snow from last year a bit.

She had lots of fun dancing, running, and waving her arms in the snow. She kept trying to collect as many flakes as she could to make a snow ball. She really wanted to make a snowball!

She finally gave up and mostly just ran around. :)

She was a bit put out when I finally made her come in, but it was cold!

What a silly goose! Oh wait, she's still a ducky. What a silly ducky! ;)

~Regina

Funny Aurora

2011-12-13T08:49:00.009-05:00

Some silly tidbits from Aurora this morning:

Me: Old McDonald had a farm, eieio. And on that farm he had a .....what did he have?
Aurora: The itsy bitsy spider!

Aurora: I going to go through here!
Me: I don't think you can, Aurora. It's a pretty small space.
Aurora: Yes I can!
A few moments later....
Aurora: I stuck!
Me: Hahahahahahaha! (Then I helped her)

Me: Aurora, you need to take off your diaper, put on panties, and choose some clothes.
Aurora: I want to be a ducky!
Me: Ok, take off your diaper, put on panties, and choose some ducky clothes.
Aurora (running towards her room): I going to be a ducky!
Moments later....
Aurora: Where are my's wings? I want my wings!

That's our Aurora! :) What a silly goose! I mean, ducky!

~Regina

3 Months is just Perfect!

2011-12-10T21:37:00.001-05:00

I think that 3 months old might just be the perfect age for Quinn.

He's still small enough to be carried around everywhere.
He sleeps quite a bit and sleeps well. He even still falls asleep when we're out and about.

He's very responsive to us.
He's very smiley.

He's very talkative.
He's found his fingers and loves chewing on them.
He's got cute fluffy hair that likes to stick up on the top of his head.
He likes to snuggle.

He loves diaper changes.
He loves watching us do things around the house and will follow us with his eyes to keep up on the action.

He only cries when he needs something or is in pain.
He's got adorable round cheeks and sweet chubby thighs.

He loves to grab our fingers and wrap his little arms around our hands or the closest soft thing.
He adores Aurora and loves to watch her play.

He also has the most adorable little pout and heartbreaking whine.
And the puppy dog eyes...oh my...

And when I sing to him, he coos along!
He's just a precious sweetheart. Need I say more? ;)

~Regina

Talkative Little One!

2011-11-27T20:26:00.000-05:00

He'll keep up with his sister just fine!

~Regina
(For those reading on facebook, please visit wilnregina.com to view the video.)

Shadows are Fun!

2011-11-24T14:49:00.000-05:00

Aurora has discovered her shadow and loves to play with it! :)

And little Quinn is getting good at holding up his head...maybe... ;)

~Regina
(For those reading on facebook, please visit wilnregina.com to view the videos.)

Pumpkin Carving!

2011-11-21T15:09:00.000-05:00

Aurora helped me carve a pumpkin right before Halloween!

Scraping the junk out was hard work!

But we eventually managed to get it all clean. :)

We carved Pacman because I thought it would be cute.

And it was! I especially liked the little ghosts.

Later that week, Wil and I carved our own pumpkins, doing more geeky themes. Wil carved a gate address from Stargate: Atlantis and I carved our family in meeples. :)

As my mom said, her grandkids have no hope of being normal! ;)

~Regina

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

2011-11-18T11:15:00.000-05:00

Wil's mom's birthday is today and since Aurora will never say anything, much less sing, on the phone, I decided to try another method of having Aurora send her birthday wishes. :)

Happy birthday, Mom/Grandma!!

~Regina (and the rest of us)

Fall Fun

2011-11-16T15:09:00.000-05:00

One rainy fall day, I decided to try out some fun with contact paper. I taped it up to the window, sticky side out, and gave Aurora some translucent tiles to stick to it.

She enjoyed it, but didn't get into like I thought she would. Maybe when she's older...

BUT...I hit on another idea. We went out and collected some fall leaves, ironed them flat, and stuck them on the contact paper.

Then we stuck the leafy contact paper to the window! Now we have beautiful fall leaf "stained glass."

Aurora was thrilled with this project and loves to stand and look at the leaves each day, especially when the morning sunlight is shining full on them. :)

I wrote more about this project on my crafting blog.

~Regina

Cuteness

2011-11-13T15:06:00.000-05:00

Typing with one hand here so this will be short and sweet...

Honestly, did I really need to say anything at all? :)

~Regina

Fingers and Toes

2011-11-11T15:03:00.000-05:00

And what was Aurora doing while I was taking these pictures?

Doing her best to cause trouble. :)

~Regina

Smiles!

2011-11-08T14:56:00.002-05:00

Quinn has begun smiling! Yay! (Watch closely or you might miss it!)

~Regina
(For those reading on facebook, please visit wilnregina.com to view the video.)

Good Morning!

2011-11-06T14:53:00.000-05:00

Quinn and Aurora early one morning...

~Regina
(For those reading on facebook, please visit wilnregina.com to view the video.)

Siblings

2011-11-03T15:00:00.000-04:00

Hehe...

Awww...

Aren't they cute?

(I'm all about short blog posts these days--makes typing with one hand less tiring.)

~Regina

Our Little Pumpkins!

2011-10-30T21:22:00.000-04:00

Call me lame, but I thought it would be fun to have the kids be in matching or themed costumes. This year they ended up matching, but we'll see what we do in the future.

Aurora as a pumpkin...

Quinn as a sleeping pumpkin...

Out trick or treating...he slept almost the entire time.

Aurora wouldn't hold still long enough for me to get a decent picture of her trick or treating. She loved looking at all the decorations--so much so that she didn't go get candy from many of the houses our group stopped at. We headed home when we got too cold (it wasn't bad, but it was chilly).

We did manage to grab a family photo before heading inside! :) (No, this isn't our house--we went to a friend's house for a little get-together/dinner/fun for the evening.)

Someone gave Aurora a bunch of glow sticks, which she became very attached to. Since they don't glow for long, we decided to let Aurora take them to bed with her. She laid them all out next to her pillow as she was snuggling down in bed...

Silly goose! I hope she's not too disappointed to discover they don't glow anymore tomorrow (we have warned her, but we'll see...).

Off to raid Aurora's candy basket!

~Regina

Just Aurora

2011-10-29T18:51:00.000-04:00

We were driving home from a shopping trip and Aurora was pretending to drive our "spaceship" (the car)...

Regina: Aurora, are you the spaceship's pilot?
Aurora: No.
R: Are you the co-pilot?
A: No!
R: Are you the...navigator?
A: Nooooo...
R: Are you the engineer?
A: NooOooO!
Wil: Are you a passenger?
A: No!
R: Then what are you on the spaceship, Aurora?
A: I just Adova on the spacesip!

How precious is that? We told her we were glad that she was just Aurora and that we liked Aurora just as she is. :)

~Regina

Bargaining

2011-10-28T14:34:00.001-04:00

Aurora had eaten very well at dinner, so Wil offered her a treat...

Wil: Would you like 1 Strawberry Newton?
Aurora: 2 strawberry fig newtons!
Wil: OK...how about no strawberry newtons?
Aurora: 1!
Wil: 1 it is!

Aurora is going to have to learn to bargain really well to win a bargain with Daddy!

~Regina

Comparisons

2011-10-22T20:37:00.000-04:00

I decided today to pull out some of Aurora's tiny baby photos. I enjoyed looking at them so much and comparing them to Quinn's that I thought others would enjoy doing the same. So here you go! Click on the photos to see them larger.

Enjoy!

Newborn comparison

2 week comparison

1 month comparison

6 week comparison

Can you believe that Quinn is already 6 weeks old?! Wow!

~Regina

Gratuitous Quinn Photos

2011-10-04T10:30:00.000-04:00

Because he's just so stinking cute...

...cuddled up like this...

...making faces...

...deciding to wake up or not...

...covering his eyes from the bright sun light...

...looking around...

...in just a diaper...

...and sucking his thumb (when he can catch it).

~Regina

Waking Babies and Dinosaurs

2011-10-01T11:00:00.001-04:00

Poor Quinn sometimes has a hard time waking up...

And Aurora loves looking at the details of Quinn's tiny clothes...

~Regina
(For those reading on facebook, please visit wilnregina.com to view the videos.)

Babies and Somersaults

2011-09-28T11:00:00.002-04:00

Quinn being charming during one of his awake times...

And since babies, in general, are pretty boring at best (though adorable), I thought I would include a very fun and exciting video of Aurora cracking herself up doing somersaults!

That's the excitement around here!

~Regina
(For those reading on facebook, please visit wilnregina.com to view the vidoes.)

Aurora and Quinn

2011-09-24T14:25:00.000-04:00

Aurora loves her new "baby brover." She would love to be able to play with him, but she's figuring out that he's not a doll. :) She has mostly been fascinated with various tiny body parts. When she first met him, she had to check out his belly button/umbilical cord. She also likes pointing out his eyebrows, tiny feet, his bottom, etc.

She loves "interpreting" his cries for us, though sometimes it's pretty obvious that she's wrong. Most of the time when he cries she announces, "He wants yum-yums!" (nursing) but when he's been crying a lot she'll switch it up and exclaim "no yum-yums!" even if he's mouthing his hands or my shoulder.

She loves watching diaper changes and picking out clothes for him. His tiny outfits are very exciting to her--and they should be, most of them are adorable!

But probably her favorite time of the day to have him around is story time...

Even with her difficulties adjusting, she loves having Quinn there for reading a story right before bed.

Quinn doesn't really care about the stories, but we've been having fun including him during this special time in the evening. :)

And a few videos for good measure:

Aurora is learning how to play gently with Quinn

Storytime!

That's all for now!

~Regina
(For those reading on facebook, please visit wilnregina.com to view the videos.)

He's Here!!!

2011-09-11T12:08:00.000-04:00

Introducing.....

Quinn Rhys Wade
Quinn- from the Gaelic Cuinn, meaning "wisdom, counsel" (Read more here and here.)
Rhys- Welsh name meaning "enthusiasm, passion" (Pronounced like Reese. Read more here and here.)

Born at 9:52 AM (Sunday, September 11, 2011)
7lb 13.5oz
20.5 inches

Welcome to the world, little one! May your life always be lived passionately and guided by wisdom!

~Us

A Guessing Game!

2011-08-30T22:41:00.000-04:00

We have put together a little guessing game for baby Wade! Go to http://www.wilnregina.com/guess/ to play! Or go to wilnregina.com and click on the "Guessing Game" link in the upper right hand corner. :) Have fun!

~Regina

Aurora and Wake-Up Time

2011-08-23T09:32:00.000-04:00

We recently put Aurora's nightlight on a timer so that we could use it to help Aurora know when it's sleepytime and when it's wake-up time. When it's on, it's time for her to be sleeping in bed; when it's off, it's time to be awake. Mainly, it's an easy way to help her know when she's allowed to get out of bed in the morning.

She still comes to wake me up in the mornings before wake-up time, but now it's a simple thing to take her and check the nightlight. She's not very thrilled when it's still on, but she seems to accept it as an objective reference point for waking up and goes back to her bed pretty well.

This morning I over-heard this "conversation" she had with one of her toys:
"Uggy bear wake-up!" She carries the bear away from his bed.
"Night-'ight on? Night-'ight on! Seepytime, Uggy bear!" She lays the bear back on his bed.
"Night-night, Uggy bear!" She waits a moment...
"Night-'ight off! 'Ake up, Uggy bear!"

I think she just might be getting it. :)

~Regina

Sprinklers!

2011-08-14T21:02:00.004-04:00

Aurora loves running around in the little hose-sprinkler thing we bought for her...

~Regina

(For those reading on facebook, please visit wilnregina.com to view the video.)

Talking

2011-08-11T20:43:00.001-04:00

One day I managed to sneak up on Aurora "reading" a book to herself. She was saying something about birds, baby birds, nests, sleeping in nests all night...but it's really hard to understand.

~Regina

(For those reading on facebook, please visit wilnregina.com to view the video.)

Singing

2011-08-07T20:30:00.000-04:00

Aurora loves singing. One evening at dinner, I changed the words to a song to words about some of our favorite foods. I think the words were something like: "I like vanilla, I know that peppermint's minty. I like lemon, but nothing can beat that sweet, smooth chocolate!" Aurora's version:

~Regina

Aurora and Her Swimming Pools

2011-08-04T18:31:00.000-04:00

On her way to the bathtub tonight, Aurora stopped to scoop up a swimming pool that she apparently found on her way down the hall. She cupped it in her hands and held onto it tight until she was in the tub. Then she realized that her swimming pool was going to get lost in the water. So she started wailing: "SWIMMING POOL! SWIMMING POOL! SWIIIIIIMMMMMING POOOOOOL!"

I listened as Wil attempted to figure out exactly what she was upset about. He finally had her dump the swimming pool into his hands and he set it on the bathroom counter to keep it safe. That satisfied Aurora for a while until she found more of the swimming pool. So Wil put it safely on the counter again with the other swimming pool. This continued the entire bathtime. Every time Wil wasn't quick enough to rescue her new swimming pool, she would start wailing again.

At one point, Wil came in to where I was getting Aurora's bedroom ready and exclaimed that Aurora sure takes her pretend play seriously. I felt bad for her, and Wil, but the whole thing made me giggle. Wil got a taste of what I've been dealing with all day today! I'm not sure why Aurora is so upset by her pretend things, but I'm guessing her molars are hurting. Poor kiddo.

Hehe. Aurora just exclaimed, "Uhoh, Daddy, Dova boken!" Daddy blew a raspberry on her tummy and she exclaimed, "Dova unboken!" Now she's broken again as she's trying (not) to walk down the hall to her bedroom. Silly kiddo.

~Regina

Creative Communication

2011-08-01T19:16:00.000-04:00

A conversation Wil and I had at our dinner table tonight:

Regina: Is that for that?
Wil: Yes.
R: Oooh! And we have that that will go perfectly with that!
W: Yep!
R: That will be nice after that goes to that.
W: Indeed.

Translation:
R: Is the oven on to warm up the blackberry pie?
W: Yes.
R: Oooh! And we have vanilla ice cream that will go perfectly with the pie!
W: Yep!
R: That will be nice after Aurora goes to bed.
W: Indeed.

We've also started having to spell things, but Wil has a hard time with that. :)
~Regina

Baby Name Ideas with Aurora!

2011-07-22T12:22:00.000-04:00

Me: Aurora, what do you think the baby should be called?
Aurora: Baby be called?
Me: What should we name the baby?
A: Name baby Abica!
Me: You want to name the baby Africa?
A: Noooooooo! *giggle* Toys!
Me: You want to name the baby Toys?
A: Noooooo! *giggle* Ohnje!
Me: You want to name the baby Orange?
A: Ohnje ducky! *giggle* Noooooo!

And on went the silliness. No useful name ideas, here! :)

~Regina

A Quick Update on Me

2011-07-13T10:16:00.000-04:00

In case anyone was wondering, I'm doing pretty well. Aside from the typical pregnancy complaints, I have nothing to whine about. My blood pressure has been really good at every doctor's appointment (so good, in fact, that I wonder if they're taking it correctly) and my weight gain reasonable.

Baby boy is very active compared to how his his big sister acted before she was born. He likes to tumble and spin and stretch between my ribs and hip bones. Aurora liked to stretch, but otherwise she was pretty quiet.

Aurora loooooves the new baby (or baby "bruver" as she calls him) and likes to point out that my bellybutton is sticking out. :) She often asks if the baby is kicking, but won't sit still long enough to actually feel him kick. She likes to give him a hug and kiss every night at bedtime. We'll see if this love continues after he's born and can wail and compete for attention.

Now if only we can survive the next 10-ish weeks!

~Regina

Sidewalk Paint!

2011-07-09T20:34:00.000-04:00

Do you see a theme in our activities recently? Aurora loves painting, so we've been doing a lot of painting around here...

Sidewalk paint is just equal parts cornstarch and water (though I did more water than cornstarch to make it thinner) and either food coloring or liquid watercolors.

Aurora loves pouring and mixing the colors, that's why I made it thinner than the original recipe.

These worked really well.

And Aurora got really messy. :)

Here's part of the reason...

A dried tulip!

Our sidewalk after our afternoon of fun! :)

~Regina

Cute Photos

2011-07-06T20:54:00.001-04:00

Sometimes we end up with stand-alone cute photos of Aurora and don't have much of a story to use them in. So just enjoy the cuteness...

Trying out the splash park. Aurora didn't like how noisy it was, but enjoyed running through the water. :)

Trying to take passport photos and she decided her eye was bothering her.

The "real" passport photo--so precious!

Reading the newspaper in daddy's spot on our bed.

Silly face.

Cutie pie.

And that's all!
~Regina

Painting!

2011-07-03T21:11:00.001-04:00

I recently discovered Play at Home Mom's blog and facebook page. They have lots of great ideas for activities to do with your kids. What's really great is that their kids are about the same age or younger than Aurora, so the ideas are generally age-appropriate! Yay!

One of Aurora's favorite new activities is painting with liquid watercolor.

You add drops of concentrated liquid watercolor into water and start painting--very easy!

Aurora's favorite thing to do is pour and mix the colors.

The paintbrushes are pretty cool, too, they're good for mixing the colors on the paper!

Most of our colors got mixed to look mostly purple. :)

Hanging up to dry!

Then I decided to do something fun. I rubbed both sides of the paper (it was 110 lb cardstock) with oil and sandwiched it with papertowels and heavy books to help the paper flatten again. The oil caused the paper to become slightly translucent. Then I traced butterflies onto the paper.

I cut them out...

And sewed them all together into a chain at different intervals.

Then Aurora and I hung the butterflies up over her bed. They turned out so beautifully!

Aurora was thrilled with them and wants to make more. :)

So that's some of our summer fun around here!
~Regina

Hiking!

2011-06-23T20:48:00.001-04:00

We have a wilderness center near us that has lots of trails and activities for people of all ages. We decided to check it out one warm afternoon. Aurora loved being able to run ahead on the trails.

But she started to get tired after about 3/4 of a mile up and down through the hills. Thankfully Daddy has strong shoulders to carry her on. :)

She was completely preoccupied by all the leaves on the trail. She either wanted to carry them or throw them off of the trail.

She found quite a few "treasures" on our little hike: a stick, leaves, a feather, and a rock. We had to limit her to one of each.

And, of course, a little video....

That's all for tonight!
~Regina
(For those reading on facebook, please visit wilnregina.com to view the video.)

Summer Rain!

2011-06-16T14:14:00.001-04:00

Aurora was fascinated by our first warm summer rain. It took her a couple tries to get out into it, but once she did...she got soaked!

Her favorite part, however, was the big puddle that formed on our sidewalk. Even though this rain was several weeks ago, she still talks about "Aurora's puddle." :)

And a deluge of videos for your enjoyment...

If you're having trouble understanding her, don't worry, you're not alone. ;)

~Regina
(For those reading on facebook, please visit wilnregina.com to view the videos.)

Ahhh... Misunderstandings! 2

2011-06-12T20:52:00.000-04:00

I was telling a story to Wil at dinner about a sales clerk who made a comment to me about my pregnancy (she guessed I was due soon--I wish!) and I said that she "really stuck her foot in her mouth."

While we were still laughing about it, I turned back to Aurora to find her chewing on her big toe. She stopped for a moment when she saw that I saw her, exclaimed "eat foot!" and resumed her efforts to chew on her toes. I was trying to figure out why she would ever chew on her toes when Wil exclaimed, "Yep, you're got your foot in your mouth, too, Aurora!" Then we just about died laughing. Aurora was quite tickled that she got us to laugh so hard. :)

~Regina

Pool Fun!

2011-06-07T21:32:00.001-04:00

Earlier last month we set up the kiddie pool for the first time. The water was cold, so Aurora wasn't too sure about getting in.

She loooved splashing in it.

Dipping various parts of her body into it. :)

Wet hair!

She finally managed to step into it...

And even practiced her kicking!

But all this fun must come to an end...When she managed to empty the whole thing, she wasn't pleased that I wouldn't refill it.

Somehow she thought that stripping would help her cause. :)

After letting her express herself a bit, we took her inside to find a diaper. :)

Oh, the trials of being 2 years old!
~Regina
(For those reading on facebook, please visit wilnregina.com to view the videos.)

Aurora's Bed

2011-06-05T14:00:00.003-04:00

Sleepy head--'cause Aurora waking up is just precious. :)

And we finally decided to try lifting her bed up off the ground.

She was absolutely thrilled!

Yep. :)

The best part, of course, is that she can scoot under it. What a novelty!

Someone's growing up. *sniff, sniff*

~Regina

(For those reading on facebook, please visit wilnregina.com to view the videos.)

Technical Difficulties

2011-06-02T15:07:00.001-04:00

UPDATE: It is all fixed. ~Wil

None of the links related to our blog on our main website, wilnregina.com, appear to be working correctly. The individual blogs will direct you to a post published on January 30, 2010 and the archive links will take you to February 2009. To read the most recent blog post (and any others) go here: http://wilnregina.blogspot.com/.

Sorry about this, we will try to fix it as soon as possible. Blogger (who hosts our blog) has been updating some things and apparently reshuffled links. Oops! :)
~Regina

Aurora and Radishes

2011-06-02T14:00:00.001-04:00

Have I told you about Aurora and radishes? No, of course not. We only just pulled our first one within the past week. 'Tis a strange and unexpected friendship...

Strangely enough, she not only held onto the radish after that first little taste, but continued to nibble on it.

Mmmmm!

So far she's been the only person in our house who's gotten more than a bite of a radish from our garden. At this point, we're getting only one ready one every 2-3 days and those go straight from the garden to rinsing to Aurora's hand, where it stays until it's been nibbled all away. :)

They're also an easy plant for her to help pick when one is ready. All in all, it works out well because neither Wil nor I really like radishes by themselves. Once we get more than one at a time, we can have a salad with them, but for now we're happy to let Aurora have her special treat.

Every time I see her nibbling on a radish, I think "Grandpa (her great-grandpa Bob) would be so proud!" :*) I sure hope he gets at least a few little glimpses of us from his spot in heaven.

~Regina

Big Hamburger!

2011-05-30T14:58:00.001-04:00

We had hamburgers yesterday and I thought it was so cute how Aurora wanted to put everything on her hamburger, just like Mommy. :) With these videos of her talking, I'm beginning to think we need subtitles to help everyone understand her, but that would take a lot more work....

That's all for now!

~Regina
(For those reading on facebook, please visit wilnregina.com to view the video.)

Our Cuties..

2011-05-22T20:16:00.000-04:00

Don't think I ever posted this here... (Click on the picture to see it bigger.)

Of course, you can't see him very clearly and he wanted to wiggle whenever they tried to get a good picture of his face, but oh well. :)

Now on to the kid, who we actually can see...! Strawberries...

Showing off a 4t dress I altered to fit her (and didn't have to alter much!).

Trying out her first milkshake the afternoon after my ultrasound. She was such a good girl with all of the tests (I had to get blood drawn, too, and there was a mix-up about where my test was supposed to be done), that she earned a kids' size of her own!

The aftermath of a popsicle...

And one of the few times recently that she's fallen asleep during naptime...

~Regina

Another Aurora Funny

2011-05-16T17:19:00.000-04:00

This morning while I was fixing breakfast Aurora was jabbering, asking for a food she hasn't previously liked...

Aurora: Mustard! mustard!
Me: Mustard? Where did you learn what mustard is?
Aurora: Mustard!
Me: OK, for lunch you can have mustard with a hot dog or chicken nuggets.
Aurora: PUPPIES mustard!
Me: What? Puppies? Oh! You want CUSTARD like the puppies in The Pokey Little Puppy!
Aurora: Mustard!
Me: Custard! We will have to see about making some custard...

I'm not a fan of real custard, but something custard-like would probably satisfy her curiosity. Maybe we'll make some atole on this cold, rainy day. Or pumpkin pie--that's a custard based pie, right? :)

That's all from our wacky household!

~Regina

Catch-up Post: Toddler Fun

2011-05-13T13:46:00.002-04:00

Just a couple videos of our silly goose...

She's very serious about her coloring...

Note: I had some questions about what in the world Aurora is doing near the end of this video when she makes a face and tenses her arms and hands. That was her "freak out" face for a while--and a pretty mild version of it. She would do it when she wasn't pleased about something. She has since stopped doing it--it didn't work to get her what she wanted (I had forgotten about it until watching the video). This video was taken back in February, so it's been a while.

WARNING: This video will likely make you dizzy. But it's hilarious. :)

That's all for now!

~Regina
(For those reading on facebook, please visit wilnregina.com to view the videos.)

Catch-up Post: Poppa's Gift!

2011-05-09T20:58:00.001-04:00

We visited Poppa and Momma not too long after Aurora's 2nd birthday. While we were there, Poppa made a special gift for Aurora: a learning/helping tower. I got the idea for a homemade one from here. I promised to post pictures of Aurora using it, but the morning sickness settled in about the same time we arrived home. So: catch-up time!

Our first morning home with it set up. She was so excited!

Aurora's favorite activity with it: washing dishes!

Wash, wash, wash! Bubbles!

She also loves having a blanket thrown over it!

And, of course, helping make a variety of good food. :)

And that's really all the pictures I've taken of it over the past 3.5 months. It's been a rough couple months, but thankfully things are going MUCH better. :)

That's all for now!

~Regina
(For those reading on facebook, please visit wilnregina.com to view the videos.)

Making Pie

2011-05-06T20:22:00.000-04:00

Earlier this week I made Colorado Pie (a meat pie with green beans and cheese) and had some of the pie crust left over. Since Aurora had been trying very, very hard to help me, I let her play with the scraps and rolling pin. She had a blast making "orange pie cookies" as she called it. :)

After a while of rolling, she asked if we could bake the "cookies." Sure, why not? So we put them on a cookie sheet, sprayed them with a bit of olive oil and I gave her a cinnamon and sugar mixture to sprinkle on them.

She tried soooo hard to be careful and sprinkle just a little bit of the mixture...

But after a while she gave us and just started dumping it. Oh well!

Well...at least a few turned out! :)

~Regina
(For those reading on facebook, please visit wilnregina.com to view the videos.)

An Update on Me...

2011-05-03T19:40:00.004-04:00

About two weeks ago, I began to have more energy and actually wanted to do stuff. Then I got sick. For 4 days I could hardly eat or drink anything and then, just like that, I started feeling great again. Odd, but I'll take it!

Since Easter Sunday, I've been feeling better than I've felt this entire pregnancy. I'm still easily worn out and don't want to do much, but I can eat food again and haven't been having any unusual trouble with blood sugar crashes. I've managed to do laundry without it piling up for a ridiculous amount of time and have made a few goodies to enjoy. I'm trying to do some of our meals this week, but Wil is still doing most stuff around the house.

Now if only that fabled 2nd trimester energy would kick in so that I could make a dent in my stack of sewing projects... :)

On Monday we had our 20 week ultrasound. Everything was nice and boring and routine, which is good! We hadn't had an ultrasound with Aurora, so it was interesting to watch what they looked at. We got some very nice, clear shots of all 4 chambers of the heart beating nice and strong. The spine was easy to see, as were all 4 arms and legs, the 3 vessels in the cord, and the various internal organs that they showed us. However, whenever the techs tried to look at external features, the baby would get wiggly--so all the still shots of the face/lips/nose are kind of blurred. And, just for the record, babies in ultrasounds still look like aliens to me. ;)

~Regina

Gardening!

2011-04-30T21:17:00.000-04:00

We put in our garden this week! It's not anything impressive or complicated--just a little flower bed that we put a frame around dumped dirt into. Our tiny yard is shared with our neighbors, so we can't exactly just do what we want with it and fix it later. The only piece of dirt that is really "ours" is this 8 inch by 9 foot rocky flower bed.

I would have loved to do a full garden, but between the available "land" and my lack of energy during pregnancy, we decided it would be best to do just a salad garden. After exploring the many ideas out there for container gardening--most of which were expensive or ugly--we decide that putting a frame around the flower bed would be best. Wil found some scrap wood at Lowes (they had been frames for riding lawn mower boxes) and so was able to get all the wood for the frame for under $6. That number was much more to my liking!

He drilled some 3/8 inch holes (I think) and put stakes through them straight into the ground to hold everything in place. It works like a charm (so far)! We thought about going a bit deeper, but decided to see if what we have will work...so our raised flower bed is only about 6 inches deep. This is all an experiment anyways, so, yeah, might as well be adventerous!

I filled it up with dirt, marked off my sections and planted some seeds. I had thought about starting all my seeds before the warm weather showed up, but I couldn't find a toddler-safe place for my seeds. :)

We planted baby romaine lettuce, royal red lettuce, simpson elite lettuce, mesclun mixed lettuce, green onions, radishes, carrots, bush beans, sugar peas, cilantro, oregano, thyme, parsley, bell peppers, and cherry tomatoes. That sounds like a lot, but we only planted a few of each.

The herbs, bell pepper, and cherry tomato that won't go in the garden. The herbs will go around the tomato plant in its 10 gallon container and the bell pepper will hopefully go in the ground in front of our little porch... we'll see how it does there.

And a few gratuitous shots of my little helper "helping" mix the dirt in my tomato pot.

She loves mixing everything she can.

Happy growing!
~Regina

Ahhh... Misunderstandings!

2011-04-27T13:05:00.000-04:00

One of many, many past and future--but definitely hilarious!

While Aurora and I were running around looking for half-off Easter candy (heh...great use of time, right?), she started complaining that her eye was bothering her. But it only bothered her in the car, so after examining it, I figured it was either really mild or just one of those things that toddlers do. When we got back in the car, I handed her a wintergreen lifesaver, which she has had several times before, and told her it would help her eye.

We drove about 2 minutes down the road and Aurora started complaining that the candy was cold--to which I responded that, yes, mint can make you feel cold. After parking in our next conquest's parking lot (Walmart, so it took a while to park), I came around to get her out and found her with the lifesaver pressed against her eye! Poor thing! Her little eye was watering and looking a bit red. I hadn't even considered that she might think to put it on her eye when all she's done with the candy before is eat it! Ha! Thankfully we had baby wipes in the car, so I was able to clean up the stickiness that had developed all around her eye and had trickled down onto her cheek.

After explaining that she was supposed to eat it, she promptly shoved it in her mouth and within a few minutes looked and acted fine. No harm done. She didn't complain of her eye bothering her after that, either, so something fixed it! Apparently I need to be a little more clear about how you use candy to fix mysterious ailments--glad I didn't give her chocolate!!!

Finding ever-more-creative ways to warp my child,
Regina

Easter!

2011-04-24T13:52:00.000-04:00

Aurora has been talking for days about her "easer dess"--she couldn't understand why she couldn't wear it every single morning! We kept telling her "three more bedtimes...two more bedtimes..." but she still didn't quite get it. Last night we told her that in the morning she would be able to wear her Easter dress...at 5am she charged into our room exclaiming "up! up! up! mommy! up!" :) Wil put her back down and convinced her to sleep. At 7am the same performance was repeated...I think we have a glimpse of what Christmas will be like at the end of the year! But she finally got to wear her Easter dress!

And, of course, had to wear her butterfly backpack from Momma--in it was her diaper, wipes, and sippy cup for nursery. :) It went quite well with her dress, I think.

After church (which I'm thrilled that I actually managed to make it to!), we ran to a local flower garden to try to get a family photo. It was wet and in the low 50s, but it worked out. While walking in we scared a mommy duck away, so I had to take a photo of Wil and Aurora carefully looking at all the eggs---there were 12 in the nest! That's going to be one busy mama duck! ;)

And, we accomplished our purpose: a new family photo! Thanks to the auto-timer that can be set to take 10 photos at a time and M&Ms to bribe Aurora, we had a very nice, fast photo session. I'm so thrilled with how nice we look!

This afternoon we will be spending with some friends of ours and their family and hopefully having lots of goodies. A nice, quiet Easter is exactly what we needed...

And for just a bit of fun... Aurora last Easter:

What a little cutie!

She's gotten so much bigger in a year... *sniff sniff*

That's all for now! Hopefully I'll be around a bit more often again!
~Regina

Life

2011-04-01T21:30:00.001-04:00

Well, now that my April Fool's day silliness is done on facebook, I suppose I should write a real blog post explaining myself. :)

Six or seven months ago, Wil and I stumbled across this article. We realized after reading and discussing it that we had lost sight of our dream for our family and had gotten stuck in the "right now." Those of you who know us well and have interacted with our family during Aurora's first two years can understand how this could have happened. We feel like we've been through hell and back (maybe) with Aurora. We love our precious girl and wouldn't change a thing about her, but she's not been an easy child to raise to this point. Thankfully, she seems to be getting easier (most of the time) as she gets older.

So, we were faced with a difficult decision. We felt the right thing for our family was a sibling for Aurora. But we really, really didn't want to go through another pregnancy. After exploring foster care and adoption, we came to the conclusion that there were simply no other options for us at this point. Were we sure enough that another child was the right thing to try to survive a pregnancy? We decided yes, with dread and a bit of excitement...but mostly dread.

So bear in mind, that is where we are coming from as we announce our second pregnancy.

Thus far, at 15 weeks in, it's been about as bad as, maybe slightly worse than, we expected. My sickness started to come and go before I even got a positive pregnancy test (at 3.5 weeks pregnant) and settled in to stay at 8 weeks. I haven't fixed a dinner since that point because the mere thought of food makes me nauseated. If I try to do much prep on it then I can't eat it. I haven't left the house by myself for at least 2 months and I would end up feeling so bad when I left that I gave up trying to go anywhere. From about 9 weeks through 13 weeks, I left the house a total of 2 times. Thankfully, the severe blood sugar crashes (hypoglycemia style) have gotten under control in the past two weeks and I'm actually able to leave the house without having one.

The morning sickness has begun to lift for a day or two and then come back--so it's nice to have a break every once in a while. The "I'm going to die of starvation if I don't eat right this moment but every food makes me want to vomit" feeling is slightly less intense. I've lived on peanut butter and honey sandwiches and pizza for the past two months. I still can't eat much meat and dairy in more than a few ounce quantities upsets my stomach. And the bane of my existence: water, WATER, makes me sick unless I lay down to drink it and stay laying down. Thankfully, I am not actually throwing up much--that is one thing I am very thankful for. I don't have to fight the dehydration or feel bad about wasted food.

Wil has taken on almost everything in the house. He plans and makes dinner, he get the table ready, he washes up Aurora and gets her ready for bed, he helps her clean up her toys, he vacuums, he mops, he does the dishes every night, and he works all day.

Me? I manage to get up and make Aurora and myself a microwave breakfast. Then I lay around somewhere and attempt to keep Aurora from jiggling me too much. Somehow we survive the morning and I microwave us some lunch (leftovers for Aurora if we're lucky, a peanut butter sandwich for me). Naptime is a lovely time and doesn't last long enough. Then we try to survive the last 2 hours or so until Wil gets home. Oh, and I try to do a load of laundry at least once a week. Heh. Our laundry is in a sad state. Poor Aurora misses her mommy and Wil has made similar comments. On the weekends, I collapse in bed and rest as much as I can, until Aurora's wailing for "mommy" draws me out. Poor thing. I manage to make it to church about every other Sunday, but we're hoping that I'll be up for more as we approach the half-way point of the pregnancy.

So, if you ask us if we're excited, we'll probably say something like "yes, but only about the baby after all of this!" THAT is why I have not been updating the blog much. I simply don't have the energy to keep up with it like I was doing before. It takes a lot of creativity and energy to write fun, cute blog posts. I simply don't have it in my right now. I have been trying to keep up a bit with our two tumblr microblogs: Adventures of Wil, Regina & Aurora and Snapshots of 2011. But even those simple blogs get significantly behind.

At this point, if you want to keep up with us, either facebook message me or send us an email (wilnregina@gmail.com). I am trying to keep up with personal correspondence. Once I start feeling better and can take back over some of my formerly regular duties around the house, then I'll try to blog again.

~Regina

How to Traumatize your child

2011-03-25T10:20:00.001-04:00

Yes, I know I haven't posted in ages. Yes, I will explain the absence. But for now, you'll have to be happy with this. I wrote it up for some online friends to enjoy, so I figured I could post it over here for you all, too. :)

Aurora was especially wound up this evening so I was massaging her arms and legs and back. I got to the squeeze and slide your hands down their arms and legs part and since we had been talking about how wiggly Aurora was, I said "Now I'm squeezing your wiggles out--but they'll be back in the morning!" At first she loved it and was saying bye bye to her wiggles (and was actually relaxing--it was great!). Then suddenly it hit her the wrong way (or something) and she broke down crying with the most pitiful face and sobs saying something about her wiggles being gone.

I had her kick her feet and exclaimed "Oh, look your wiggles didn't go away! They were just resting!" But she didn't buy it and kept wailing. Wil came in to rock her and she was still sobbing--huge, full body sobs (someone's over-tired!). I ran and grabbed some gas drops and a piece of candy (she always gets gas from crying like this), gave her the medicine, then told her that I had wiggle medicine for her and gave her the candy. Sucking on it at least forced her to stop sobbing. Within a few minutes she was talking to Wil about something (all I heard was "no no no no no no no"). Hopefully she's recovered, but she'll be sensitive about wiggles for the next couple days.

Poor thing. I should have known better after that "go to sleep, sleepy eyes" incident. That was pretty traumatizing, too. :)

~Regina

Business

2011-02-07T13:37:00.000-05:00

We have moved! I'll post a real update about that later, but I've been getting asked for our new address, so I figured I would share it here. It's also on our website under the "Contact Us" link if you ever need to look it up again.

Wil & Regina Wade
1050 Palmer St.
Wooster, OH 44691

Our phone numbers are all the same, only the address has changed. :)
~Regina

Letters

2011-02-03T09:23:00.000-05:00

Like any proud parent would be, we are very impressed with how well Aurora is learning her letters. We are recovering a bit from the shock that she's actually learning them and are trying to make it fun for her to learn. Here's a bit of bathtime fun with letters. :)

~Regina
(For those reading on facebook, please visit wilnregina.com to view the video.)

Birthday stuff!

2011-01-31T09:00:00.003-05:00

Opening presents...

She had to stop and try out every new toy, of course!

Opening a particularly tricksie present. :)

She paged through each book before moving on...

She loved making a mess.

Of course, I have to include a video showing off the present that I made for her!

And, finally, a shot of all the loot!

Now on to birthday cake! Please pardon our attempt to sing. I tried to start us out on the same note, but apparently Wil wasn't paying attention.

Contemplating her cake after pulling her fork out from beside her in her booster seat! Silly kid.

Her response when I asked her to smile for the camera. :)

That's all for now!

~Regina
(For those reading on facebook, please visit wilnregina.com to view the videos.)

Snippets of Cuteness

2011-01-28T09:13:00.001-05:00

Talking to Momma on the phone. Aurora talks about Momma every day and always says "Momma? Momma? 'ait, 'ait." Translation: "Can I talk to momma today? I'll wait for the chance." :)

Just playing. See the snow out the window?

Found her pockets! This picture was taken while we were checking out the new apartment that we should be moving into within the next week.

This is what happens when I ask Aurora to smile. She scrunches up her eyes, wrinkles her nose and bares her teeth. :)

And one last thing...a video of Aurora singing! :)

~Regina
(For those reading on facebook, please visit wilnregina.com to view the video.)

Happy Birthday, Aurora!

2011-01-25T10:13:00.003-05:00

From our tiny sweet girl who entered the world with a wail...

Who could only cuddle if she was swaddled...

Who wanted to take it all in...

And didn't want to miss a thing!

Who knew what she wanted and went for it...

And had fun while doing it!

To a big toddler who hates clothes...

Is very serious about her cookies and coloring...

And wants to be all grown up...

You've made it two years! Welcome to your third year of adventures! May it be even better than the preceding two! :)
~Regina

Baking with Daddy!

2011-01-22T21:12:00.001-05:00

This afternoon Wil and Aurora made some apple pie together. :)

Aurora loves helping in the kitchen so much that Momma thought that an apron was a good Christmas gift--it certainly was!

Aurora had to concentrate to make the apple corer/cutter go around and around.

Apples waiting to get chopped just a little bit more!

Tasting a bit of her hard work...

Mixing apples...

Trying a different method of mixing...

And a video of all this fun...:)

~Regina
(For those reading on facebook, please visit wilnregina.com to view the video.)

Why I Disappeared...

2011-01-13T21:25:00.000-05:00

So it's been over a week since the blog was updated--oops! Aurora's been having trouble sleeping and so, consequently, I also am sleep deprived. Getting only 6 hours of broken sleep (if even that) just doesn't encourage creativity in my experience.

Last night was the icing on the sleep-deprivation cake: Aurora became terrified of closing her eyes. Not sure where this fear came from, but she was able to tell us fairly clearly that that's what she was afraid of. She would become extremely upset any time that her eyes started closing (from her being so tired) or when we demonstrated with our eyes that her eyelids would open again. She was so preciously pitiful sitting on my lap crying and waving night-night to her eyes. Poor thing. Wil ended up staying with her in her room until she was almost falling over from exhaustion, then he rocked her while she wailed, but she couldn't help but fall asleep. She hasn't had any more trouble with her eyes shutting today, though she's not wanting to go to sleep right now. At least she's only playing quietly in her room, which is a great improvement over last night. This kiddo certainly keeps us guessing.

So, with that in mind, I'm going to only post a couple videos. Enjoy!

Our newest attempt at sledding: Aurora insisted on pulling the sled and refused to ride in it. I guess whatever works, right? :)

Aurora working on threading ribbon through some of her sort-and-stack blocks from Melissa & Doug. This is a brand-new skill that she worked on all afternoon today.

That's all for now!
~Regina
(For those reading on facebook, please visit wilnregina.com to view the videos.)

Two Funny Stories

2011-01-06T13:30:00.000-05:00

Story 1: Before Christmas we visited my family and saw my sister, who is about 7 months pregnant. Since then Aurora has been obsessed with babies being in bellies and has been trying hard to understand that she (Aurora) doesn't have a baby in her belly. We were talking about it again earlier this week (Aurora pointed at her belly and said "beebee!") when her tummy made some gurgling noises. So I exclaimed, "Aurora, your belly doesn't have a baby in it but it does have bubbles!" Ever since then, Aurora has been walking around pointing at her belly exclaiming "bub-es! bub-es!" Of course, now she notices any time my tummy makes gurgling noises and and will point it out to me (and anyone else who is in earshot).

Story 2: For Christmas, Aurora received a Little People nativity set. She fell in love with the set, especially baby Jesus. She would take baby Jesus to bed with her, carry him around, become distressed when she couldn't find him, and talk about him constantly. We put away all of our Christmas decorations this past weekend and decided to put the nativity set away also, to keep it special for Christmas time. We made sure that Aurora said good bye to every piece and that she kissed baby Jesus as we put him in the box with his mommy. Now the box of packed Christmas stuff is sitting in our bedroom waiting to be put away in the storage shed. Every time Aurora sees it, she points at it and exclaims, "beebee esus bye-bye!" and signs "sleep." Every time we pray with her and start the prayer "Dear Jesus..." she starts exclaiming "beebee esus!" and gets a little sad look on her face. I'm beginning to wonder if we need to bring baby Jesus back out of his box.

~Regina

Because I'm Lazy...

2011-01-03T21:52:00.000-05:00

I'm posting a couple videos. Between being sick for the holidays, the holidays themselves, teething, and bad sleep, I don't have much energy to write a real post....so you just get a couple of really cute videos of Aurora. I don't think I'll hear anyone complaining about that. ;)

This first video was taken while we were driving down to my parents' for a pre-Christmas visit. Pardon my stuffy-sounding voice, I had a killer sinus infection at this point...

And a video of Aurora jumping/dancing just yesterday. What a silly girl!

That's all for now!
~Regina
(For those reading on facebook, please visit wilnregina.com to view the videos.)

Sledding!

2010-12-29T10:25:00.000-05:00

A few afternoons ago, we took Aurora sledding. See this picture here? It looks like she's smiling....

...but she was most definitely not...and here is why:

She cried almost the entire 10 minutes that we were outside.

Oh well for all kids enjoying being out in the snow.... Poor kiddo.

And a couple short videos for your enjoyment...

Wil going down the hill with Aurora...

And me going down with Aurora! We went inside almost immediately after this video...

~Regina
(For those reading on facebook, please visit wilnregina.com to view the videos.)

Our Christmas

2010-12-26T16:00:00.000-05:00

On Christmas Eve, we stuffed the stockings...not hung near the chimney since we don't have one...

(I have to show you a close-up of Aurora's stocking since I just finished sewing it earlier this week. My mom did the cross-stitch on the cuff and I quilted and sewed everything else. You should be able to click on the picture to see it bigger.)

We laid out the presents under our little tree.... and went to bed.

We woke up to snow gently falling (not that you can see it here).

Aurora, of course, received the majority of the presents, but she didn't understand enough to wake up early--she got up at her normal 8am. Mommy and Daddy definitely appreciated that!

Aurora was quite curious about all the presents. She kept pulling on ribbons and poking packages while we read a very short version of the Christmas story. :)

Finally, we let her tear into the presents! She got a lot of gifts including this gyroscopic, no-spill bowl from mommy...

an awesome, 10 foot long alphabet puzzle from Aunt Debbie, Uncle Matt, and cousins...

a personalized train whistle (just like her cousins received!)...

and many other goodies, like the 7-8 hot wheels cars in her stocking!

But the favorite gift of the day was definitely the Little People Noah's Ark. When mixed up with the wonderful Little People nativity set that Wil's parents got her, it gave her hours of entertainment. It was rather amusing to see random cheetahs and giraffes in the manger scene while Baby Jesus was in the ark with toucans. :)

We spent most of the day relaxing and playing quietly because Aurora had a fever. Thankfully she was still able to enjoy the day. :)

~Regina

Christmas and Jesus

2010-12-23T09:30:00.001-05:00

A couple nights ago, I finished sewing Aurora's stocking. As soon as I finished, Wil and I hung up all three of our stockings. The next morning Aurora noticed them and I explained to her that there was one for Daddy, one for Mommy, and one for Aurora. Then we started talking about the other Christmas decorations around the house.

I explained to her that the decorations are part of the way that we celebrate a very special event in history: when Jesus came as a baby to earth. She responded with something like "ejus!" and ran over to the shelf holding all her books. She pulled her baby Bible board book off the shelf, brought it to me, and opened it. So we read the little poem about how Jesus was born in Bethlehem and talked about how that was just the beginning of Jesus' story. I told her how he did wonderful things while He was on earth and He taught us how we should live, then He died to pay for our sins so that we don't have to. How much she understood I have no clue, I was shocked enough that she even remembered reading about Jesus in her little Bible storybook!

As Wil said last night, Aurora has a memory like an elephant's. She remembers far more than we give her credit for and likely understands far more than we realize. If only the child could speak something other than gibberish....

~Regina

How to Wash Your Hair according to Aurora

2010-12-20T15:20:00.000-05:00

1. Fill your bath tub ankle deep with warm water. Any deeper than that and you'll get more of your hair wet than necessary.

2. Get into the tub. Or be placed in it, if you're Aurora's size.

3. Lean over so that the top of your head is dipped into the nice warm water. Don't dip it too far in--you only want to get the very top of your head wet.

4. Stand back up and giggle uncontrollably for a moment. You are, after all, hilariously genius for washing your hair like this.

5. Enjoy your absolutely awesome hair style.

6. Dry your hair off. Don't bother with soap or shampoo, you don't need that junk. At least, you don't when you're less than 2 years old.

~Regina

How to Take a Walk according to Aurora

2010-12-17T15:15:00.000-05:00

Start off with your baby doll in a stroller. Push her happily along for about 50 feet....

Then insist that Mommy takes the baby doll out and try carry the stroller as far as you can. You won't get very far, but it's fun to try anyways.

Give up on the stroller and insist on carrying the baby doll. Leave the stroller for Mommy to carry--that's what she's here for. ;)

Somewhere along the way, baby doll will get hungry. So make sure to feed her a nice snack of...grass?

After making it a total distance of about 200 feet in the space of 45 minutes, insist that Mommy carry you, baby doll, and the stroller back to the car.

You have now completely your successful walk. The End.

~Regina
(And yes, these pictures are about a month old. It is certainly not this warm around here anymore.)

Four Aurora Funnies

2010-12-14T15:00:00.005-05:00

1. Aurora was supposed to be napping, instead I found her doing this:

We should just take her bed out of the room and give her a bunch of cardboard boxes...

2. Speaking of cardboard boxes, the day that the new beloved "Behbee" the penguin arrived, Aurora decided she wanted to mail herself back in the box. It did, after all, come from Momma. :)

3. One afternoon, Aurora's teeth were hurting her badly enough that she wanted to be carried all the time. So I pulled out one of my slings and put her in it. Once she finally got tired of being in it, she got out and brought me all of her favorite toys so that they could enjoy the experience. At one point, I had three baby dolls, one blanket animal, one stuffed bear, three hotwheels cars, and several mega blocks bricks in the sling. :)

4. Aurora being adorable in her adorable jacket.

~Regina

Snow!

2010-12-11T14:45:00.018-05:00

Yesterday morning, I pulled up our blinds to find the world covered in snow. Since it was a "warm" 28 degrees, I decided that Aurora and I would be venturing outside. Aurora wasn't too sure about walking in the snow...

It didn't help that she had new boots and two layers of clothes underneath that fluffy snowsuit of hers...

She could barely even lean over to grab the snowball I threw to her. Poor kiddo.

"Smash!" goes the snowball!

She wasn't too thrilled about that. :)

But we had a good time, anyways. I was ready to go in before she was, but I made her come in because I have no idea how long a toddler could actually last outside in that weather.

~Regina
(For those reading on facebook, please visit wilnregina.com to view the video.)

Aurora and Letters

2010-12-08T13:30:00.002-05:00

Aurora loves being read to; she's constantly asking for stories. When I read to her, I often follow along the words with my finger so that Aurora gets the idea that those funny black shapes actually mean something. When she was very small, around 13 or so months, she began running up to various signs with large letters and pointing at the individual letters while jabbering. She apparently really wants to learn how to use those funny black shapes. :)

Not too long ago, we began to point out specific letters and tell her what they were. We started with "A" for "apple" because apples are one of her favorite snacks. She didn't seem to really care, so I didn't worry about it. Fast-forward to a few days ago. I heard her running down the hallway saying "apple, apple." I assumed she wanted an apple and went to talk to her. I found her pointing at an "A" repeating "apple, apple" quite insistently. I was impressed and told her that letter was an "A" and "apple" starts with an "A." Then I started pointing out other letters that were related to things she loved (B for baby, C for car).

Just a day or two ago we were eating dinner and Aurora started saying "A" and "E." I looked over at her plate, a Veggie Tales plate with the words "God made you special and loves you very much" written around the edge, and watched as she pointed at the correct letter and said it. Of course, she only knew 2 letters, but she was pointing at both upper case and lower case letters and getting them right--I have never worked on lower case letters with her!

So we have begun to point out even more letters related to important things. So far, her alphabet goes like this: A for apple, B for baby, C for car, D for daddy, E for ear, M for mommy, S for socks. That seems like enough for now. But what am I going to do with this kid? She hardly talks and is already trying to learn her letters!!

Then, of course, there are days when every single letter is "uMmmmm" (M) or "ample" (A). :)

~Regina

Potty Training Aurora's Way

2010-12-05T10:26:00.000-05:00

At least, we think it's potty training, but some days we aren't so sure...

A while back, I don't remember when, Aurora decided that she didn't like clothes, so she stopped wearing them whenever she could possibly get away with it. Not too long ago, she decided that she didn't like diapers, either, so she stopped wearing those as much as possible.

We tried many tactics to keep her in her diaper, but she managed to get out of all of them. She's unzipped zippers, unsnapped snaps, squeezed through neckholes, wiggled out of tights, and unbuttoned buttons. We gave up trying to keep her in her diaper and decided to try encouraging her to use her adorable little green potty.

I even made her 10 or 11 pairs of adorable fleece panties to encourage her to stay dry. And yes, it's 10 or 11 because I was sure I made 11 but can only find 10...so either one is missing or I never made it, but I can't remember.

Well, we aren't sure whether we are being successful with this whole potty training thing or not. Most days she'll make it in the potty once, have one accident and the rest of the time she'll just hold it until she has a diaper put on her (at naptime, when we go out and about, and bedtime).

The good news is that Aurora can stay dry for an entire morning--but we haven't figured out a way to convince her that going in the potty is OK. She is very distressed every time she wets, whether in the potty or in her panties. The only reason we can think of that might cause this distress is if she feels like it's part of herself that she's losing--kind of like how we would feel if we were bleeding.

So, here we are, kind-of, sort-of potty training. We've tried bribing her with little things, like reading a story to her on the potty or playing this particularly annoying video. She asks for the video every time she sits down on the potty. We have now informed her that she actually has to go on the potty before she gets to see the video.

Is this potty training or is this just an annoying nudist phase? Does she actually care about learning to use the potty and keeping her panties dry or is she just having fun? Will our diaper budget drastically decrease in the near future? Will she finally get it just in time for the craziness of holiday travel? Tune in next time to find out! Or probably just something else entirely different that has nothing to do with potty training....but it WILL be about Aurora! ;)

~Regina

Playing with Baby Doll

2010-12-02T15:15:00.005-05:00

I love watching Aurora's play become more and more social. It's especially fun now that she's treating her baby dolls as though they were people (sometimes). :)

Two notes:
1. One of these days, Aurora's baby dolls are going to need to get real names. We currently have two who are call just plain "baby doll" and one that is called "alien doll." The other stuffed animals are identified by whatever animal they are. We're so creative with names, aren't we?
2. I love how in this video Aurora is wearing a night gown and underwear I made her and playing with a doll that I made her. Makes me feel so crafty and accomplished. :)
~Regina
(For those reading on facebook, please visit wilnregina.com to view the video.)

Rocking back on her chair

2010-11-29T15:55:00.001-05:00

Aurora has discovered a new way to amuse herself at mealtimes...good thing there's the closet doors there!

~Regina
(For those reading on facebook, please visit wilnregina.com to view the video.)

Onions!

2010-11-27T15:50:00.003-05:00

Aurora wanted to try some of what Mommy and Daddy were battering and frying. Mmmm! She definitely doesn't share her Uncle Kyle's hatred of onions!

And she never did say "onion" a second time for me.

~Regina
(For those reading on facebook, please visit wilnregina.com to view the video.)

Upside Down!

2010-11-25T15:50:00.001-05:00

Aurora has discovered a new way to get her hair wet...

~Regina
(For those reading on facebook, please visit wilnregina.com to view the video.)

Coloring some more!

2010-11-23T15:45:00.000-05:00

Aurora loves to color. :)

~Regina
(For those reading on facebook, please visit wilnregina.com to view the video.)

Giggles, giggles, giggles!

2010-11-21T15:30:00.000-05:00

Some days it doesn't take much to make Aurora giggle...

~Regina
(For those reading on facebook, please visit wilnregina.com to view the video.)

Counting!

2010-11-19T20:38:00.000-05:00

Aurora sometimes will line up her cardboard blocks by style and color. This day I tried to have her count them.

~Regina
(For those reading on facebook, please visit wilnregina.com to view the video.)

Bedtime Story

2010-11-12T13:31:00.000-05:00

Aurora couldn't sleep. It had been 2 hours since bedtime and she had absolutely no interest in sleeping. Her parents didn't know what to do. She wasn't crying, she wasn't whining, she was simply playing quietly in the dark and NOT going to sleep. So mommy went in to talk to her.

Of course, Aurora wasn't really paying attention to mommy. She started playing with mommy's wedding, so mommy started tell her about it. Aurora didn't get past the part where she heard that daddy gave it to mommy. She started saying "dida dida mummay mummay dida mummay dida dida mummay!" while pointing at the ring. Then she held out her hand, pointed at her pointer finger and started asking "dida dida dida?"

So now Aurora is expecting to receive a ring from Wil sometime (probably soon). :)

And she did eventually fall asleep.

~Regina

We love you, Grandma Marjorie

2010-11-08T15:35:00.002-05:00

This afternoon I received the news that my mom's mother, my grandma Marjorie Rosenkranz, had died earlier this morning. I don't know many of the details, but that doesn't really matter.

What does matter is that grandma is well-loved and will be very missed. I am very thankful that Grandma got a chance to meet Aurora this past May, when we visited for my cousin Brian's wedding.

Although growing up overseas meant that we did not get to see our grandparents as much as any of us would have liked, Grandpa and Grandma did make sure that the time they had with us was filled with memories:
--Teddy bear hot cakes that would cry "ow!" and "oh!" and "my tummy (head, arm, leg, ear, etc.) hurts!" when grandma would cut them for us. Yes, that's awful--but we loved it, and Grandma loved doing it for us.
--Songs about Pretty Red Wing, the Native American girl whose beloved rode off to war and she cried all night.
--Maple bars cut just perfectly so that we all got a fair share.
--Pretty "Country Living" magazines that I was sure Grandma saved just for me to look at.

We love you, Grandma, and look forward to seeing you again someday. In the meantime, you will be sorely missed!

~Regina
(For those reading on facebook, please visit wilnregina.com to view the video.)

Go Fly A Kite!

2010-11-06T13:31:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, while the weather was still warm and we needed an afternoon to run around. So we pulled out Wil's kite, hunted down some kite string, and went out to fly a kite.

Daddy, please let me help? Please? *puppy dog eyes*

Whee!!

Once the kite got farther up in the air, she couldn't help as much, so we let her hold the string reel.

She got goofy.

Then decided that she no longer needed her clothing.

Yeah. Not sure how to keep her in her clothes these days.

Helping pick up the kite.

And much fun was had by all! :)

~Regina

Fighting Sleep

2010-11-03T10:09:00.000-04:00

Last night was an odd and somewhat frustrating night. We got Aurora ready for bed and "down" to bed at her bedtime (8pm), but Aurora was not ready for bed. She wanted to run back and forth across the room, twirl in circles, and jump on the bed. After a few minutes of trying to calm her down, I decided that I wasn't helping anything and left her in her room with the promise that I'd check on her in 30 minutes.

After more than an hour of goofing off in her room, I finally found an idea to help her get the idea of relaxing. I asked her to pretend to sleep until mommy came back in 30 minutes to check on her. Thirty minutes passed and all was quiet in her room. I cracked the door open and saw her snuggled against a pillow with her eyes closed.

"What a great relief! She's finally asleep!"

I stepped into the room to cover her with a blanket and saw her cheek twitch. Then the corner of her mouth moved, sliding upward into a precious smile. She opened her little eyes and looked up at me, so proud of herself for pretending to sleep so well.

I cuddled with her for a few minutes and talked to her about how well she was doing trying to sleep and not crying at all. I told her sometimes it was hard to sleep (obviously) and that mommy was proud of her being so quiet and waiting for mommy so nicely. Then I tucked her in again and asked her to pretend to sleep for 30 more minutes. The next time I checked on her she was truly asleep, thankfully--at 10:30pm!

This morning I got my answer as to why it was so tough for Aurora to fall asleep last night: she cut her two right eye teeth last night! Yay! Hopefully the other two are soon to follow and we can be done with this almost 7 week stretch of rough sleep.

~Regina

vjhy6yt12rtipo][uyiu

2010-11-02T18:41:00.000-04:00

uyyuyy7j7k8099o9o98op9ooiiiokkkkkioo E2L;LL121OK;11';';[PLO Vy3u23syh5olooi,tetrer33ew4we0e-3w023ww=3 v ncmds,w,e..sd.edldllxdddl09oiugtrt 5

rrr5rrrrtrrtp[[=---ppi0o-oiunnjjn mkklkioiiiuyuhuhuiu87njfcddddfdddm

Yep, that's about what it's like to talk to Aurora right now. :)

~Aurora and Regina

Coloring

2010-10-29T21:25:00.000-04:00

An online friend is having a coloring page contest, so I thought Aurora and I could have some fun. I colored my page, then set Aurora up with markers and let her look at my page as an example. She was more fascinated with the markers themselves than interested in coloring the page. :)

Drawing circles!

Big scribbles!

And, at the end, very colorful hands!

Our artwork. :)

Aurora loved her first experience with markers, so we'll likely try them again. But she has to be closely supervised since she loves trying them on other things besides paper. What a silly girl we have!

~Regina

Wil & Regina

Happy 3rd Birthday, Aurora!!

Chaos...or is it Murphey's Law?

And Now...A Message from Our Sponsors (or not)

More Comparisons

More Cute Kiddo Stories

Momma and Poppa Came to Visit!!

Cute Kiddos

Cookies!

Our Talkative Little Quinn

2012 Picture a day blog!

On Trying to Take Photos of Two Kids...

Baby Sweetness

Christmas 2011

More Snow!

Quinn's Type of Fun

First Snow!

Funny Aurora

3 Months is just Perfect!

Talkative Little One!

Shadows are Fun!

Pumpkin Carving!

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Fall Fun

Cuteness

Fingers and Toes

Smiles!

Good Morning!

Siblings

Our Little Pumpkins!

Just Aurora

Bargaining

Comparisons

Gratuitous Quinn Photos

Waking Babies and Dinosaurs

Babies and Somersaults

Aurora and Quinn

He's Here!!!

A Guessing Game!

Aurora and Wake-Up Time

Sprinklers!

Talking

Singing

Aurora and Her Swimming Pools

Creative Communication

Baby Name Ideas with Aurora!

A Quick Update on Me

Sidewalk Paint!

Cute Photos

Painting!

Hiking!

Summer Rain!

Ahhh... Misunderstandings! 2

Pool Fun!

Aurora's Bed

Technical Difficulties

Aurora and Radishes

Big Hamburger!

Our Cuties..

Another Aurora Funny

Catch-up Post: Toddler Fun

Catch-up Post: Poppa's Gift!

Making Pie

An Update on Me...

Gardening!

Ahhh... Misunderstandings!

Easter!

Life

More Cute Stories

How to Traumatize your child

Business

Letters

Birthday stuff!

Snippets of Cuteness

Happy Birthday, Aurora!

Baking with Daddy!

Why I Disappeared...

Two Funny Stories

Because I'm Lazy...

Sledding!