Babies' Checkup

Travis and Libby went to the doctor for checkups yesterday. Here's the latest on their development.

Travis

Height: 36 inches (75th percentile)

Weight: 28.4 pounds (56th percentile)

One year ago, Travis was in the 99th percentile for both height and weight, so his growth has clearly slowed down. He's healthy and growing, though, which is all that matters. His language development is advanced, perhaps because he talks nonstop! Dr. Copeland identified the cause of his nighttime waking: his 2-year molars are on their way.

Travis is also getting more "terrible" by the day. Just when we didn't think it was possible, he manages to find new mischief-- despite our thoroughly childproofed home. For instance, when I went into his room yesterday to get him ready for the doctor, I discovered quite a scene. He had opened each drawer of his dresser, had climbed up it like a ladder, and had thrown everything from the top to the floor. (Those items were on the top of the dresser specifically to keep Travis out of them. Thankfully, the bottom drawers are nice and heavy or there could have been serious danger.) That's Travis for you. He bounces from mischief to mischief constantly. We just hope he puts his creative, persistent, active, and mechanically smart qualities to good use some day. In the meantime, he is ridiculously adorable.

Libby

Height: 26 inches (20th percentile)

Weight: 15.25 pounds (5th percentile)

Libby is still our itty bitty girl. Don't let that 5th percentile fool you; she eats great and is even getting a little chunky! She is ahead with her motor development, and her language development (if you can call it that at this age) is great, too. Libby went from being a very quiet baby to babbling and squealing loudly most of the time. And she now pulls herself up to stand every chance she gets. In fact, we think she'll be cruising soon.

For how active Libby is, she's also very mellow. So long as she's fed, rested, and free to move about, she is content. We also joke that she's our gymnast. She's tiny, flexible, and extremely strong. If she wants to take something from Jamin or Travis, they have to try to keep it from her... and they're strong, too! Libby loves playing ball with her brothers. For now, they just roll balls back and forth. We hope they continue to be great friends (though I'm admittedly terrified of having two toddlers come December, especially with Travis as the mastermind).

***

Travis and Libby both did great with their shots. Libby only cried with the last one and calmed down quickly with a binky and Jamin's singing. Travis was happy the instant he got a Diego sticker and a sucker. Jamin was my special helper the whole time. Oh, how I love them.

Serenade

One evening a couple of weeks ago, the kids played while I unpacked.

After Travis went to bed, Jamin escaped into the backyard. He came inside some time later toting a few of his toys... and two flowers: one for Libby and one for me. 

"Girls really love flowers," Jamin explained.

(Like those dirty hands?)

As usual, Jamin asked us to put our flowers behind our ears. Libby wanted to eat hers, so it went on the counter instead.

Jamin pulled out the step ladder and dangled clothes hangers across the top. Then he placed two swords beside it. 

"My xylophone is ready!" he announced. "Girls also love music."

He serenaded us for the good part of an hour.

(Hammers and saws apparently make great mallets.)

We're lucky girls.

Breather

 

Life is pretty hectic right now.

We have a lot to tackle before classes resume for Scott. Chances are good that some of those tasks will spill over into the following couple of weeks.

While I love blogging, it isn't high on my priority list-- not to mention that we finally got our computer replaced (read: tons of set up, downloads, file conversions, etc. before it's 100% usable)-- so I'm taking a break from blogland for a little while.

Eight Months

In the midst of my 8-day-memory-posting streak, our baby girl turned 8 months old. 

Libby is such an easygoing, active, happy girl. I've never known a baby who cries less. She spends most of her time playing contently, smiling, eating, or sleeping. She scoot-crawls very fast these days: if I step into a different room for a moment, she's at my feet in no time. She loves her newfound ability to sit by herself. Libby has also started climbing. For now, she's just climbing into things at her level (the bottom level of the coffee table is her favorite). She has successfully pulled herself up to stand once and continues trying to. For her small size, she is surprisingly strong.


We just love her!

(Tutu, headband, and flower clip by Joey of Libby Loo's Boutique)

Memory #8: Eighth Anniversary

Why, yes-- that would be today!

Scott begins his straight graveyard shift tonight (woohoo!), so we began the festivities yesterday.

First, we headed downtown to check into our room at the Grove.

Next, we stuffed ourselves full of sushi and hibachi steak. Delicious!

We then picked up dessert and turned in for the night. 

After brunch and a little shopping, we headed back to reality this afternoon.

While we didn't get the loads of sleep we hoped for (courtesy of loud traffic at 4am), we had a fabulous kid-free time. Thank you to Charly & Jeannie for watching the little ones!

(View of the city from our room)

We've truly had a wonderful eight years. Happy anniversary!

Memory #7: Wedding Day

These eight years would not have been possible without our first day as a married couple. Our wedding is a wonderful memory in itself! 

I had grand plans to write a detailed account of our wedding, but today is much too busy (in a good way) to dedicate that amount of time. Instead, here are some highlights of our big day:

• Waking up early and feeling surprisingly well rested (everyone told me that I would toss & turn all night). 
• My dear friend Char styling my hair after a sleepover in the Greenwood Inn bridal suite.
• Being sealed for time and all eternity to the man of my dreams. Patriarch Westenhaver came to the Portland Temple that day specifically for our wedding. Our sealing was simply beautiful.
• Touching up my hair and makeup and changing into my lovely gown.
• Taking pictures in the summer heat for hours. We think our photographer may have had Parkinson's. Not to make light of the disease, but it didn't inspire a lot of confidence in the days of film photography. The concern and loads of sweat are now a funny memory of our day. Thankfully, we do have some gorgeous pictures.
• Dining with close friends and family at the Pavillion Bar & Grill. I can still taste the calimari, olives, and lemon-rosemary stuffed chicken. 
• Cutting into our incredible cake. Beaverton Bakery prepared a decadent masterpiece of chocolate fudge cake with raspberry ganache filling and chocolate ganache icing.
• Chatting, laughing, and spending time with loved ones through the afternoon and evening.
• Opening gifts in our suite.
• Saying goodbye to everyone and beginning our lives together. 

(Me and my hubs, August 17, 2002. Sorry about the poor quality of this photo. We're still scanner-less, so this is a picture of a picture.)

Memory #6: Refiner's Fire

For a moment, I studied Scott's face. The embers below cast a faint orange blush on his cheek. He shifted his eyes to mine. 

"Are you ready?" he asked. The fire's reflection danced in his gaze.

"Yes," I smiled. 

"Let's go."

Our hands clasped. As we moved our feet across the smoldering coals, our steps aligned. The heat gave way to pain, and we walked more swiftly. 

At last we stepped on to the cool forest floor. Scott pulled me close, and I looked at him again. The fire now burned intensely in his dark eyes. 

That moment silently reaffirmed our commitment. Through thick and thin, we're in this together. I wouldn't cross the flames of life with anyone else. 

Memory #5: Water Fight

For the most part, Scott and I share the same taste in music, food, movies, and humor. But not always.

One day, I came home to see Scott busily working on the computer. He looked so serious. Boring. When I walked out of the room, a brilliant idea popped into my mind. I giggled to myself as I carried a cup brimming with ice-cold water and tiptoed back into the room. 

Splash! He was soaked from head to toe. I laughed uproariously.

"What the (insert the four-letter word of your choice here; he used them all)?!"

Apparently, what was beyond hilarious to me was infuriating to my dripping-wet husband. Oops.

A few days later, he returned the favor. Since then, it has been an ongoing, one-way, years-long water fight. The blitzes always happen when I'm in the shower. He claims that he's still paying me back. 

He thinks it's hilarious. Me... not so much. 

Memory #4: First Cell Phones

We aren't exactly technology people. We're both good with electronics; we just don't jump out and buy the newest trend the instant it comes out. Instead, we usually wait until it's maintained some staying power. Or sometimes even until it's become a necessity.

This was especially true with cell phones.

We were cell phone holdouts. We honestly didn't see the need: we had a landline, and there were phones everywhere. We were in class at the same time, worked together, and came home the same time. Plus, those loud-talkers and bluetooth-talkers annoyed us. And looked crazy. (You have to admit that you've occasionally questioned the sanity of someone holding a heated, one-way conversation... until you realize that person is actually using a bluetooth.)

Anyway, we eventually reached a point where our schedules began to separate. Scott picked up a second (and third) job, studied 18 credits per semester, kept busy with his upper division and capstone work, and placed in several national horticulture competitions. I also studied 18-credit semesters during my upper division work, served as a staff editor for one student journal, served as editor-in-chief for another, worked part time, and edited freelance on the side. Basically, we went from seeing each other all the time to spending most of our time apart. This change in dynamic cracked our resolve about cell phones. We finally decided to check out our options. Just to see.

On a chilly winter night, we headed to the mall. Those mall people seemed good at pushing their products, so we figured we'd give them a chance to pitch. We wandered into a T-Mobile store first. Lingering in the doorway for a moment, we mumbled a let's-not-agree-to-anything commitment to each other.

"You've never had a cell phone before?" the tall, techy salesman asked us. He almost seemed insulted.

Thirty minutes later, we walked out of the T-Mobile store, cell phones in hand, plan activated, and resolve obliterated.

We played and plugged away at our new toys as soon as we climbed into the car. For over an hour, we tinkered around, figured out our settings, and called each other. Yes, we called each other... a handful of times.

"I don't know how we ever lived without these," we admitted as we drove home. We cancelled our land line the first chance we got.

Memory #3: Tradition

Christmas + budget = pure frustration. 

Thankfully, necessity is also the mother of invention. 

When our first Christmas rolled around, we faced the conundrum of most young couples: finding perfect gifts that wouldn't break the bank. With both of us in college, our discretionary budget was especially tight. We secretly shopped for each other. We independently realized that anything decent was also out of our price range. A week before we were scheduled to leave for San Diego, we both fessed up. We wanted our first Christmas to be wonderful; we worried it would instead be a disappointment.

Then we had an idea. We would each have a budget of $30... and everything had to fit in our stockings. Suddenly, the frustration of shopping turned into an exciting challenge. By the time Christmas rolled around, we couldn't wait to share our finds. We opened our stockings on Christmas Eve after everyone else had gone to bed. It was a total blast! From that point on, that has been our little tradition.

One year, Scott kidnapped my stocking and left a ransom note.

Sometimes we pick a theme. 

The budget varies, but we've found that spending less money is actually more fun.

Our Christmas Eve stockings are always a highlight of our holiday, especially now that we have kids. Once the children are asleep, we set up Christmas, then we give each other our stockings. We love sharing this just-the-two-of-us time in all the hustle and bustle of the season.

Memory #2: Testing My OCD

You learn a lot about someone in the first year of marriage. 

For instance, Scott learned that I may have a slight case of OCD. And I learned that he likes teasing me. A lot. 

We moved to our second apartment after we'd been married about six months. Though it was modest, it was also 30 years newer than our first place. The kitchen especially excited me: it had a dishwasher (not an easy find on our meager student budget), and it was about three times the size of our previous kitchen. I didn't know what to do with all that cupboard space! 

I quickly learned that those plentiful drawers didn't close easily. With your average drawer-shove, they still stuck out roughly half an inch. You had to pay special attention to one stubborn drawer in particular. 

The slightly open and askew drawers irritated my OCD tendencies. Every time I saw one sticking out, I let out a sigh, pushed it into place, and reminded Scott for the umpeenth time. He just smiled and rolled his eyes... until one day.

This particular evening, I came home from class and prepared to make dinner before work as always. When I stepped into the kitchen, I stopped in my tracks. Not only was that pesky drawer open; it was open all the way. As was every other drawer. And every cupboard door. As I stood there motionless, I heard Scott begin to snicker from the bedroom. I fumed, "This is not funny!" "What isn't funny?" he asked innocently through his laughter. I grumbled to myself as I closed every drawer and cupboard. 

I started dinner then stepped out to put my books away and change for work. As I came back in to check on our meal, I saw that every drawer and cupboard was open... again! This time, Scott stood across from me, looked at the infuriated expression on my face, and cracked up. I groaned even louder and began shutting the drawers. As soon as I closed the first one, Scott looked right into my eyes and slowly opened the drawer again. I reached over and slammed it, his hand still on the hardware. He just smiled and opened it once more. 

At this point, my glare cracked into a smile. And then a laugh. We both laughed and laughed until our sides hurt. Point taken. 

I still closed that pesky drawer every time I passed by. But I now chuckled to myself each time I did.

Memory #1: A Tale of Two Utensils

Peek into our utensil drawer, and you will find some pretty ordinary stuff. Among the tongs, whisks, and multiple ice cream scoops, you will also find two slightly different utensils. They may not look out of place, but the sheer sight of them makes us smile instantly. 

***

This is your average, basic bottle opener. To us, it's also a funny memory-- and one of the first of our marriage. 

As we left for the first leg of our honeymoon (to the Oregon coast), we brought along several bottles of Martinelli's. We imagined ourselves indulging in wedding cake and sipping away in newlywed bliss. There was just one problem: we didn't have a bottle opener.

With our location in mind, we figured it would be simple enough to find an over-the-top, tacky, souvenir-style bottle opener that screamed "Oregon coast." We headed to the nearest gift shop with every intention of finding it in five minutes tops. Turns out there were no bottle openers in the store. None. Baffled, we left, intent to find one at a different store the following day.

When we walked away from the next gift shop empty handed, our mission began. This wasn't just about cake and Martinelli's anymore: we had to find the perfect commemorative bottle opener. Day after day, store after store, we hunted... to no avail. (For clarification, that's not the only thing we did: we also walked on the beach, wandered around other must-see locations, and ate a lifetime's worth of fish & chips.)

As we prepared to leave the coast and head to our open house in Idaho, we admittedly felt defeated. We decided to look one last time when we swung by a local grocery store to pick up a couple of items for our drive. At last, we found one! But it wasn't the kitschy contraption that we'd fixated over for days. It was the plain, simple bottle opener pictured above. Scott and I just laughed. We bought that bottle opener and enjoyed Martinelli's to our hearts' content on the final leg of our honeymoon in Cascade. And we now think of our obsessive newlywed hunt every time we see it.

***

You may not recognize this next utensil. Take a stab at what it is.

That's right; it's a coconut scraper!


Scott and I got this nifty piece of metal our second summer in Fiji. We wanted to learn how to cook some traditional Fijian food, and our friend/instructor-- Junior Rokatola--showed up with a bag full of fish and produce from his village... and this little number.


See those holes? You use them to affix the coconut scraper to a large piece of wood. Then you sit on said wood. Because our knees weren't accustomed to squatting for long periods of time, we instead attached it to the bottom of a wooden stool.


Junior told us the steps from there: you simply cut the coconut in half, drain the fluid into a bowl, and then scrape the meat from the coconut halves into that same bowl (now on the floor below). Sounds easy, right? Junior sure made it look easy. Then he proceeded to laugh hysterically as Scotty and I fumbled and worked at a snail's pace. Or maybe just a palagi's pace. By the time we finished, we were laughing just as hard as Junior. Thankfully, the meal itself truly was a snap to prepare. And incredibly delicious.


We flew back to the States with our cool new utensil in tow. After another lousy attempt at hulling a coconut, we admitted failure and have used canned coconut milk ever since. (Not quite as good, but it does the trick.) We still keep our trusty coconut scraper in our kitchen just in case. If nothing else, it's great for laughs!


The uber scrumptious island delicacy:

Ika Vakalolo

Ingredients:

-3-4 filets white fish. I use tilapia. Chicken also works, though it's Fijian cuisine sacrilege.

-Bundle of leafy greens. Collard greens are my favorite.

-1 can coconut milk.

-Large onion, sliced and separated.

-Three diced tomatoes.

-Pinch of salt.

1. Empty coconut milk into a bowl. Mix with salt. 

2. Place fish into the bottom of a medium pot. Place onions and then greens on top of the fish. Pour in salted coconut milk.

3. Cover and simmer on low until greens wilt. Then add tomatoes.

4. Continue simmering until tomatoes are soft. Serve with jasmine rice.

Bula!

Eight Years of Memories

In nine days, Scott and I celebrate our eighth wedding anniversary.

These eight years have been full of memories. Some are of notable, impactful times. Most, however, are of those small but significant moments that make up a life. 


Beginning tomorrow, I will share a memory each day.


Yep, I can be a sentimental sap. Plus, it'll break up the tedium of an intensive to-do-list-accomplishing week.


In other news, Scott's jury duty was waived for medical reasons. There's apparently one advantage to being half deaf. 

Mom, This Is for You

Do you know what this is?

Don't worry; neither did I.

Jamin explained, "It's Mutti's collection."

I hope you like puzzle piece tow trucks, empty chalk buckets, and shredded paper.

Par-tay!

We had a little party to celebrate Travis' birthday.

First, there was food. 

Then presents. Travis made off with a lot of good loot! 

(Where was my camera?)

Next, the boys attacked a pinata:

That was one strong pinata. It even resisted Brock's pummeling! 

But Sam eventually brought it down:

Kevin's "sour candy" face:

Libby + Nanay:

Slip 'n Slide:

Of course, no party would be complete without a cake:

Travis didn't quite know what to do with it. First, he stared. For a long time. After we all egged him on, he eventually leaned forward... and bit into the frosting. (Memories of his first birthday, perhaps?) Sam and Jamin helped him blow out the candles. And we ate.

Then the kids played. And played. And played. And we adults hung around and chatted until late.

Travis the Terrible

Two years ago, this boy made his big entrance into the world:

Travis must have heard the term "terrible twos" because he certainly has been practicing. 

But we adore him just the same. How could you not?

Terrible moments and all, Travis is simply endearing.

He loves...

Cuddling up to read books.

Roughhousing with his big brother, his cousin Brock, and his daddy.

Splashing (to put it lightly) in the bathtub.

Watching cartoons.

Eating.

Pushing buttons, especially on off-limits electronics.

Playing outside.

Hugging his baby sister.

Making messes.

Talking nonstop in his mix of English and Travish.

Singing.

Spending time with his favorite ladies: Nanay, Coco, and Mama.

Building blocks.

Dancing his arm-pump dance.

Going for walks.

Playing trains.

Being silly.


We love you so much, Travis. We are blessed to have you in our family. Happy birthday!