So while I was pregnant I was definitely nervous about the prospect of dressing a little girl . . . I mean, girls wear outfits, not just clothes! Pretty intimidating for this girl, let me tell you.
But I am having a surprising amount of fun dressing up Dory! Not every day, and not as well as some parents, but it's still fun. Check out our cutie-pie ready for a birthday party tonight. Click on any picture to enlarge.
Last week my friend Lily lent me a DVD called "The Happiest Baby On the Block". It uses what is called the 'Five S Method' to calm crying infants. These are the 5 S's:
Swaddling
Side/stomach position
Shushing Sounds
Swinging
Sucking
I thought the video was excellent, and I wish I had gotten to see it 4 years ago! Ihighlyrecommend this for new moms & dads. I think you can watch excerpts on YouTube.
Most of the S's are ones I have already used, but Swaddling was not. I gave up on swaddling very quickly with my infants- they are so big, and I am a doofus at swaddling. However, after watching this video I really felt like I needed to give it another try with Dory. I looked around online, and found The Miracle Blanket. It's an idiot-friendly swaddling blanket! They are $30 new; I got one for a bit less on eBay. I tried it out on Dory last night, and it really did help keep her calmer. But the BIG news?? I put her down for the night swaddled up in it, and she slept for over SEVENhours straight! The best we had ever done before was around 4 hours.
It. Was. Glorious.
So, I recommend the "Happiest Baby On the Block" video. And if you are swaddling-incompetent like me, I recommend the Miracle Blanket!
My Mom got to come to Abilene and visit us! 9 wonderful days of help with the kids, me not washing dishes and just fun hanging out. Here I am just before my mom came, making our favorite treat (raspberry ice cream) with the help of ALL my kids. I'm wearing Dory in the baby carrier. Here is the best picture we could get of MorMor and her grandkids. Hmm. I think it might take a Red-Sea-caliber miracle for us to get a good picture of all three kids. Here are Brian and Clayton with their cowboy hat, saying Happy Trails to MorMor! We love you so much, thank you for coming all this way to see us. We can't wait to see you again. Please come soon- we'll make the ice cream!
Yesterday Dory was blessed by Andrew. It was a beautiful blessing. She looked absolutely adorable in the dress my mom crocheted- wouldn't you agree? Dory & Daddy
MorMor, Mom and Dory
Oh, and Clayton was determined to climb up Mommy's legs during the whole photo shoot, so here is a snap I took of him.
I don't often have blinding insights as a mother- but a couple days ago one hit me. Brian had come home from Red Robin with a balloon, and was thrilled with it. But after playing with it for a few minutes, it popped. He promptly brought the pieces over to me, and said "Try and fix it, Mom!".
In one split second, I learned a few things.
1. My kids are going to have bad things happen in their lives. Whether it's because of their own mistakes, natural disasters, or other people inflicting trouble on them.
2. I will want to fix the bad things.
3. They will sometimes hope I'll fix it.
4. I usually won't be able to, and it'll be hard for both of us. But it will be for the best.
So, I learned a few things from a popped balloon. And Brian learned that if he plays too rough, his toy might break- and that's a bummer. But worth the lesson learned.
If you look towards the western sky just past sunset, you can just catch the last few days of Venus as the evening star. For the last few months, Venus has been rising higher and higher each evening (or setting later and later, depending on how you look at it), as well as getting brighter and brighter. Then, at the peak of it's brightness, it falls down rapidly towards the horizon until it "dies" - or vanishes from our sight underground - or rather, hidden from our view in the glare of the sun. But not to worry, after a few days Venus returns, rising as the morning star to repeat its cycle.
Those familiar with scriptural symbolism will recognize The Bright and the Morning Star as a title for Jesus Christ. The parallels are strong. A star that rises from the Sun, gradually becoming the brightest "star" in the sky, by far. Then, at it's peak, dying and plunging down into the Earth, only to rise again in a few days. Furthermore, thanks to modern planetarium software, we can plot historical positions of the planets. On three dates that many scholars believe to be significant in the life of Christ, Venus was on day 1 of it's "resurrection": 6 April, 1 BC, the date held by some as His birth; 6 Oct 29 AD, the date of his Baptism by John the Baptist; and 3 April 33 AD, his Resurrection. Also a couple significant dates in the history of the Church are coincident with the "Resurrection" of Venus - 25 March 1830, and 3 April 1836. So go watch the "death" of the evening star and, if you want to get up early, it's "resurrection" at the end of this month.
SO, on with the pictures. You'll notice, in these pictures from a few months ago and from recently, Venus appears in "phases" just like the moon. Because it passes between us and the Sun, we can normally never see it's full "day side".
Also celestially significant, Saturn is losing it's rings! Well, at least as it appears from Earth. About every 15 years, Saturn's rings (normally tilted towards us) pass along the same plane and we see them edge-on. Being only about 30 feet thick, they'll seem to vanish to observers with small telescopes this September. They'll be back though. Here's a pic from last night showing the rings nearly razor-thin, with just a little black showing between the rings and the planet.
Planets are those great objects that look almost as good (sometimes better) with the naked eye as in a picture, so you friends and neighbors in the Heart of Texas with us are welcome to come see the ringed planet for yourself any clear night.
The first five people to comment on this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you.
This offer does have some restrictions and limitations: 1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make, but I will try. 2- What I create will be just for you. 3- It'll be done in the next 12 months. 4- I won't be telling you what it is. 5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange, but most likely not.
After leaving your comment, you may choose to repost this on your blog, the whole 'pay it forward' idea. It's up to you!
I used to have a Pi Day Party every year with my geometry classes- we would eat pie, tell math jokes, and have a contest to see who could memorize the most digits of pi. One year we built a paper chain with 10 different colors representing digits 0-9, and hooked it together showing the first 1000 digits of pi. Good times!
So today, go out and eat some pie. Just make sure you measure the circumference of your pie first, and divide it by the diameter.
Today the weather suddenly turned really cold (it's been in the 70-80's lately) and wet. So we didn't do much. But the boys still insisted on playing outside- even though it was 35 degrees and raining. I let them go out though, until I saw Clayton next to the gutter drain trying to catch pneumonia:So then we came inside.
During one of Dory's 17 daily naps, I found myself searching for a blanket for her. I couldn't find one of hers handy, so I used Brian's blue fleece blanky. It's the one my sister made for him, and it's his '#2' blanky. When Brian saw Dory sleeping in it, he was not too happy. He made a grab for it, but I explained that it was keeping Dory warm, and he could have it back when she woke up. A few minutes later I walked by and saw this:
Brian had covered Dory with his #1 favorite white blanky! He is fiercely possesive of it, and I was touched that he gave it to his baby sister. People, that is LOVE.
Here are some pictures of us at the park yesterday. I got a little 'black & white' happy while editing them.Brian insisted on bringing his 'robot-glasses-boxes' to the park, and would not put them down for a minute. But that did not stop him from having a great time throwing rocks in the big puddle, swinging and sliding.
Above is Clayton having second thoughts about the BIG slide. And meet my new garage-saleing buddy, Dory!! She went out with me this morning, and we hit some great sales. She slept the entire time. Hey, it's never too early to learn to bargain-hunt. One of my garage sale purchases today was these two robot figures for Brian. They are pretty cool looking, and they even have batteries and walk/light up (and only .25 each). Well, Brian was playing with them for quite some time, yelling, running around and pretending. Then all of a sudden he quiets down and says "Hug!" and he had the two robots give each other a big hug. It was so sweet.
One of Brian's current favorite movies is Wall-E. Today he came up with some 'robot glasses' by holding three boxes together. I love this boy's imagination!In other news, things are going pretty good in the Monks' house! I am so happy to have Dory here, and to not be pregnant right now. She has been an absolute angel- only waking up once at night, and rarely crying. I don't know if that'll last, but I'll enjoy it while it does.
The boys have had very different reactions to their baby sister. Brian adores her, wants to give her kisses and blankies all the time. He is concerned about the "owie on her bee-bo" aka her umbilical cord on her belly-button, but I've assured him it'll be fine. Oh, and the phrase 'bee-bo' comes from Sandra Boynton's Belly Button Book.
Clayton on the other hand completely ignores Dory. Wants nothing to do with her. He seems to be his normal happy self . . . the only change I've noticed is that he's had a really hard time going to sleep since Dory's arrived. I hope he'll be fine with everything soon.
On Friday Andrew has his 'Red Carpet' day, where the squadron invites family to tour the flight line and see what the pilots have been doing during training. Andrew's parents and two of his sisters were able to come out here for it, and we had such a great time with them! Here are just some random pictures of everyone. Here is Clayton and Auntie Kylie. Clayton and Daddy Kylie and the boys hanging around Clayton with Auntie Kylie and Auntie Kiri Kylie and Andrew stargazingWe love you guys!
The Flying Monks are Andrew, Lisa, Brian (4), Clayton (3), and Dory (8 months). We are enjoying life in the Air Force.
The latest Funnies:
*While waiting for the school bus, Brian saw the sleds in the garage and said he wanted to go sledding again. I said we would have to wait til it snowed again, because there is no snow on the ground. He looked around and thought for a second, and said "Let's go buy some at the store!".
*At church, three kids (about age 10) played a cello, violin and piano trio musical number. Brian looked at them and said "It's the Little Einsteins!".
*One of Brian's favorite stories is The Very Hungry Caterpillar. His favorite part is when the caterpillar eats all the different foods at once and gets a stomachache. The other day at that part of the story he said "The caterpillar has a smelly-cake!".
*After some heavy rain, there were massive puddles in the roads. We drove through one and sent waves of water over the car- and Brian told us "The car is taking a bath!".
*I guess we have taught Brian the importance of positive reinforcement. He now tells us "Good job!" after we do something for him, and tells us when to tell HIM "Good job Brian!".
So while I was pregnant I was definitely nervous about the prospect of dressing a little girl . . . I mean, girls wear outfits, not just clothes! Pretty intimidating for this girl, let me tell you.
Here are Brian and Clayton with their cowboy hat, saying Happy Trails to MorMor! We love you so much, thank you for coming all this way to see us. We can't wait to see you again. Please come soon- we'll make the ice cream!
Yesterday Dory was blessed by Andrew. It was a beautiful blessing. She looked absolutely adorable in the dress my mom crocheted- wouldn't you agree? 
Dory & Daddy
MorMor, Mom and Dory
I don't often have blinding insights as a mother- but a couple days ago one hit me. Brian had come home from Red Robin with a balloon, and was thrilled with it. But after playing with it for a few minutes, it popped. 
He promptly brought the pieces over to me, and said "Try and fix it, Mom!".
SO, on with the pictures. You'll notice, in these pictures from a few months ago and from recently, Venus appears in "phases" just like the moon. Because it passes between us and the Sun, we can normally never see it's full "day side".
So then we came inside.
Brian had covered Dory with his #1 favorite white blanky! He is fiercely possesive of it, and I was touched that he gave it to his baby sister. People, that is LOVE.
Dory fell asleep on my stomach, Brian fell asleep on my legs. Let's just say it was a long day.
Brian insisted on bringing his 'robot-glasses-boxes' to the park, and would not put them down for a minute. But that did not stop him from having a great time throwing rocks in the big puddle, swinging and sliding.
Above is Clayton having second thoughts about the BIG slide. 
And meet my new garage-saleing buddy, Dory!! She went out with me this morning, and we hit some great sales. She slept the entire time. Hey, it's never too early to learn to bargain-hunt.
One of my garage sale purchases today was these two robot figures for Brian. They are pretty cool looking, and they even have batteries and walk/light up (and only .25 each). Well, Brian was playing with them for quite some time, yelling, running around and pretending. Then all of a sudden he quiets down and says "Hug!" and he had the two robots give each other a big hug. It was so sweet.
One of Brian's current favorite movies is Wall-E. Today he came up with some 'robot glasses' by holding three boxes together. I love this boy's imagination!
In other news, things are going pretty good in the Monks' house! I am so happy to have Dory here, and to not be pregnant right now. She has been an absolute angel- only waking up once at night, and rarely crying. I don't know if that'll last, but I'll enjoy it while it does.
On Friday Andrew has his 'Red Carpet' day, where the squadron invites family to tour the flight line and see what the pilots have been doing during training. Andrew's parents and two of his sisters were able to come out here for it, and we had such a great time with them! Here are just some random pictures of everyone. Here is Clayton and Auntie Kylie. 
Clayton and Daddy
We love you guys!
