Potty Time

I am so happy to announce that Laina is potty trained! The cloth diapers are all freshly laundered and sanitized, packed up and stored in the basement for the next baby (whenever he/she decides to pop in). I followed an online program recommended by a friend called 3 Day Potty Training (www.3daypottytraining.com). Over all I am very pleased with the outcome, although for Laina it did take longer than three days.

We started on June 21 (lovely Father's Day present to Jay!) and that whole first week was pretty hard. The idea is to put the kid straight into underwear and then watch them like a hawk and take them to the potty any time they look like they need to go or when they start having an accident. I think Laina understood the concept with in the three days, but it took the whole week for her to really perfect it. This week has gone amazingly well and we've had no accidents at all the past 2 1/2 days! She even woke up twice last night to use the potty and then woke up dry this morning. Yay, Laina! She is such a big girl now. Getting her out of diapers really took away that last little bit of baby-ness she had. She just seems so big now - like a real preschooler :)

Even though that first week was really hard and trying on my patience, it was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. The "fast" concept really made a difference, even though it's intense at first, at least it's done and over with. The other nice thing about buying the ebook from Lora Jensen is the online support you get. I had to use that a few times.

My little girl is growing up so fast and I know, before I know it, she'll be in school. A big part of me is excited about that day but a small part of me knows it's all going to come and go so fast. I want to try and really intentionally be present with Laina in these young years. As hard as it is for me to give up a lot of other things that I know I could do if she was in school or in day care, I know how important this time is and that I should be treasuring it.

Anyways, enough of my rambling. Here are a few pics to celebrate Laina's passage into "pottyhood".

Last night of diapers, showing off her big cloth-covered tushie

Showing off the big girl undies


Potty time mid-snack (hey, when ya gotta go, ya gotta go!)

Laina loved this balloon and it made her laugh so much.
It was good for potty training because laughing made her have to pee :)

The Much Delayed Ali Visit Post

Whew, it's been busy around here. Laina is newly potty trained but more on that to come later.

My parents were in town a couple weeks ago and we kept busy and had a great time visiting. Among the things we did: meandered the chalk festival downtown, visited the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and the Denver Botanic Gardens, ate sushi, had a get-together/BBQ with old attendees of my dad's church in CA who now live in CO (there are several!), watched Mommy ride (too bad the new filly wasn't born yet), and had lots of fun just hanging out and playing. Enjoy the pics.

Unemployment Over!

After 5 months of what I like to call a 'very frugal and stressful 5-month staycation', I will be going back to work Monday!

After exploring options in Atlanta, Albuquerque, Bakersfield, and even Ohio, I got an out of the blue invite to come in and interview for an architect position at a very good local firm, AndersonMasonDale Architects. And after meeting me they still decided to hire me!

I'll be starting Monday, and am still a bit floored by the opportunity to get back to work, at a firm I have huge respect for, and most of all, that we'll get to stay put!

Of course, in typical fashion, after accepting the offer, I've started getting calls about more interviews, and have had to turn them down. If only I could spread some of that interview love around to some of my friends who are still looking, it would be a good deal for everyone.

We are feeling hugely blessed with this new development, and can't wait for life to re-emerge from the strange limbo-state it was in for the last several months. Of course, Jenna will miss having me available so she could work at the barn more often, but hopefully we'll be able to come up with a solution for that. And I'll miss spending a lot of time with Laina, but really I'm trying to look at it more that we got 5 months of lots of daddy-daughter time, which is something we never would have had the opportunity to have otherwise.

Massive thanks to all who helped us through this period in all kinds of ways: prayers, connections, advice, opportunities, encouragement, etc. In the end it was a connection with a friend at the firm that got me in the door, which eventually got me the job.

It will definitely take some adjustment to get back into work mode, but I'm looking forward to it, and I hope more of my colleagues can make the same transition soon. There are too many of us out of work right now. I'm definitely encouraged in general by the very sharp upturn of job postings and interview calls over the last few weeks that we may be working our way out of the year plus funk in the architecture world...

Memorial Day '09

We had such a great Memorial Day yesterday BBQing with our neighbors. We pulled the grill down to the end of the cul-de-sac and everyone brought out chairs and one neighbor even brought a fire pit! We had marshmallows roasting over the fire pit and the joke of the day was that we were all "camping".

Laina enjoyed Taylor and Sage's car so much that she only got out of it once during the day, and that was to chase some amazingly huge bubbles. She squealed in high-pitched delight as she chased them down the street. I wish we could have gotten some video footage of that.

If we do have to move, one of the things I will miss the most is impromptu gatherings with our neighbors. I've probably said this before, but I know that God hand-picked this house and this neighborhood for us. The sense of community here just blows me away. So, enjoy some pictures from the the last few days (not all from Monday, but all still cute!)

Trains, Planes, Automobiles, and Grandparents

Laina's Grandma and Papa (Jay's mom and dad) came to visit last week, and she loved having even more attention than usual. The visit started off with the purchase of a belated birthday train table from a friend-of-a-friend's garage sale. It quickly became the center of Laina's play universe, where she can play trains, cars, etc.


After confirming her love of trains, we decided to head to the Colorado Railroad Museum. Laina loved the big trains, and kept yelling 'Woooah! Look at that!" The museum is great, though we didn't see why more of the trains weren't open for exploring. We'd love to go back when they do a 'steam up' or run the garden trains, as there wasn't much action the day we went. Laina, having her grandparents in the palm of her hands, got them to buy her a little Thomas the Tank Engine for her train set at the gift shop.


We also visited the Wildlife Experience with Grandma, and later turned what could've been a boring lawn-mower blade sharpening visit to the tractor shop into an exciting visit to the "Tractor Museum", where Laina got to see all kinds of big tractors. Of course she got a souvenir of her visit to each... a toy snake from the Wildlife Experience and a little 'John Deere 4020' tractor replica from the tractor shop.

We checked out Red Rocks later in the week, since we'd never been there. It was during some high school graduation ceremonies, but it was still incredible to see the gorgeous rock formations. And yes, we visited the gift shop, and Laina scored a dinosaur... with the most obnoxious electronic roar ever conceived by man.


A lot of time was spent just hanging out and playing, inside and out. Grandma and Papa took Laina to the park, riding her bike, playing in the backyard, etc.




Another cool stop we made was to the restaurant (Perfect Landing) at Centennial Airport. The food was just okay, nothing special, but the view was great. Laina loved watching the airplanes take off, land, and taxi, and Papa (former army pilot) might possibly have enjoyed it even more.

Even though we live 1000 miles from our families, its great when they are able to come out for a week or so to hang out with Laina (and us). Jenna's folks are back out in a couple of weeks for a longer duration, too, so Laina will get another week of intense grandparent visitation.

Blog Catch Up - Easter

I'm not really into the whole Easter bunny thing and everything that comes along with him, but our church actually did a big thing called Hunt so we went along with it. Here are some pics from the drizzly Easter "festival", along with some from the Easter egg hunt we did a few days later in our backyard. Oh the joy of finding candy-filled plastic eggs.

TWO!

A post to commemorate Laina's passage into two-year-old-hood. I know it's a couple weeks late, but better late than never, right?!

We were outside playing and taking photos today and I was inspired to write a poem about my little girl. I haven't written poetry since college, so it's not great, and it's not even close to being finished. And no, you don't get to hear what I have so far. But you do get a couple pictures from the session.




















On her actual birthday, we had a little impromptu gathering at our neighbors Josh and Andrea's house, complete with a cake made by a different neighbor, Myka. Our neighbors are so awesome and we absolutely love living in this community!



















Laina also received birthday gifts in the mail all through out her birthday week and still gets excited when a package comes to the door. Many clothes arrived which are much appreciated (so she has something to wear this summer!) and a special tea set from her cousins. She is very into pretend play and loves setting up tea for her stuffed animal friends and also me and Jay.

I so whole-heartedly, absolutely, love the age she is at now. Some people complain of the "terrible twos", and maybe that is still coming for me, but Laina really has a great personality and is so much fun to be around and interact with. She is so curious and wants to know about everything and I love teaching her. She loves singing and dancing and spinning. She is running now and trying to jump. And she still loves cars, trucks, buses and tractors! In the car today she was singing a song she composed about Daddy, Mommy and Laina. She is also creative and artistic, loving coloring and drawing. She draws lines and circles and tries to draw letters and asks us what they are. It's so awesome to see her growing and learning. While there may be the occassional fit when she doesn't get her way, she really is such a joy to our family. It may have taken me two years to see it, but now I can really believe that children are a blessing from the Lord.

Here's to many more happy years ahead of us.